Army, Dems Skirmish Over Future Combat Systems Cuts
Army brass and Democratic lawmakers are trading fire over proposed cuts to the service's top modernization priority, the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, who overseas operations for the Army chief of staff, told Army Times this week that a proposed $867 million cut to the Army's $3.7 billion request for FCS in fiscal 2008 would gut the program. Speakes told the paper that proposed cuts approved by the House Armed Services Committee on May 9 would force the cancellation of eight variants of planned ground vehicles.

"The Army is not going to surrender its commitment to modernization," Army Times quoted Speakes as saying.

House Democrats countered that rather than diminishing the FCS program, they are instead seeking to improve the readiness of U.S. ground forces stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Responding to Army complaints that lawmakers were undermining the program through budget cuts, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), chairman of the House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee, told Aviation Week, "That's complete nonsense."

Abercrombie noted that the committee's fiscal 2008 military authorization bill was approved by a vote of 58-0.

Lawmakers have said their priority is to improve Army readiness and to fund parts of the FCS program that could be fielded by 2010.

"The polestar of this year's defense authorization is readiness," Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (Mo.) said in a statement released Tuesday (May 16).

Future Combat Systems contractors include Boeing, General Dynamics Land Systems, Science Applications International Corp. and BAE Systems.