Army Troop Cuts Spur Calls For End To Sequestration

http://breakingdefense.com/2015/07/army-troop-cuts-spur-calls-for-end-to-sequestration/



M1 tanks at Fort Benning, GA, one of the bases to be hit by the cuts.

Army Troop Cuts Spur Calls For End To Sequestration
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on July 08, 2015 at 6:51 PM

WASHINGTON: Army officers and officials hit Capitol Hill this afternoon to brief congressional staff on the coming round of personnel cuts. We’ve known for over a year that the Army would cut 40,000 active-duty soldiers — going down from 490,000 troops to 450,000 — but now the service is finally saying which units get cut. Further, unlike previous reductions that focused on Europe, these 40,000 solders will come out of bases in the United States. So, for many members of Congress and the public alike, what’s been an abstract debate is about to get painfully real.

Will news of specific cuts to local bases change the politics? At stake isn’t this current round of cuts, which it’s almost certainly too late to stop. The bigger issue is whether there’ll be more cutbacks when and if the Budget Control Act goes into full force next year. Sequestration — shorthand for the BCA– would drive the Army down by another 30,000 active-duty troops, to 420,000 soldiers. Sequester would probably force politically explosive cuts to the National Guard and Army Reserve as well, which have so far been largely (not entirely) spared.

“Numbers like 450,000 or 420,000 have no real meaning to the public,” said retired Lt. Gen. Guy Swan, vice-president for education at the influential Association of the US Army. “But significant reductions at local bases will get some attention, certainly by the members of Congress who have constituencies there.”

~snip~

“I suspect it will be ugly,” one Army source told us. “In some communities, it will seriously degrade tender economies still trying to recover from the Great Recession.”

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_Abrams

Production shutdown

The U.S. Army planned to end production at the Lima Army Tank Plant from 2013 to 2016 in an effort to save over $1 billion; it would be restarted in 2017 to upgrade existing tanks. General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), which operates the factory, opposed the move, arguing that suspension of operations would increase long-term costs and reduce flexibility.[45][46] Specifically, GDLS estimated that closing the plant would cost $380 million and restarting production would cost $1.3 billion.[47] If passed, a bill in the U.S. Senate from the first session of the 112th Congress would allocate $272 million in funds toward the plant to allow it to continue regular operations through 2013.[48]

By August 2013, Congress had allocated $181 million for buying parts and upgrading Abrams systems to mitigate industrial base risks and sustain development and production capability. Congress and General Dynamics were criticized for redirecting money to keep production lines open and accused of "forcing the Army to buy tanks it didn't need." General Dynamics asserted that a four-year shutdown would cost $1.1–1.6 billion to reopen the line, depending on the length of the shutdown, whether machinery would be kept operating, and whether the plant's components would be completely removed. They contended that the move was to upgrade Army National Guard units to expand a "pure fleet" and maintain production of identified "irreplaceable" subcomponents; a prolonged shutdown could cause their makers to lose their ability to produce them and foreign tank sales were not guaranteed to keep production lines open. Even though money is being spent to protect the industrial base, some feel those strategic choices should not be made by members of Congress, especially those with the facilities in their district. There is still risk of production gaps even with production extended through 2015; with funds awarded before recapitalization is needed, budgetary pressures may push planned new upgrades for the Abrams from 2017 to 2019.[49] In December 2014, Congress again allocated $120 million, against the wishes of the Army, for Abrams upgrades including improving gas mileage by integrating an auxiliary power unit to decrease idle time fuel consumption and upgrading the tank's sights and sensors.[50][51]

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