Jen Judson
A U.S. Marine with 1st Battalion, 12th Marines, 3d Marine Division fires a joint light tactical vehicle mounted M240B machine gun while conducting a convoy movement during Spartan Fury 22.1. (Staff Sgt. Olivia G. Knapp/U.S. Marine Corps)
U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll promised Congress today the service would show its homework in 10 days on how it decided to consolidate commands, restructure formations and cancel or restructure a slew of weapons programs.
In a memo to the Army, the service secretary announced in early May that major change was underway and dubbed it the Army Transformation Initiative.
Yet many of the decisions laid out in the document lacked clear analysis behind them, such as a plan to consolidate Army Futures Command and Training and Doctrine Command into one entity and cancel programs just as they were crossing the finish line like the M10 Booker light tank and the Robotic Combat Vehicle
Driscoll tallied the amount of spending planned over the next five years for programs the service will cancel or reorient to roughly $48 billion. The service will reallocate funding into innovative efforts to transform the Army into a highly mobile and lethal force, service leaders are saying.
“I agree the Army must change and modernize how it fights and must take into account significant changes in technology,” Sen. Chris Coons, the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee said in a June 18 hearing.
“But, bluntly, months after you’ve announced the Army Transformation Initiative, this committee hasn’t received detailed or substantive analysis as to why the Army is planning to cancel or reduce 12 programs of record, consolidate or reduce staffing at 21 commands or how the investments you’re proposing will significantly enhance battlefield lethality,” he said.
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