Senate ignores House's lead, provides millions more for Army mod program

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday provided hundreds of millions of dollars more than the House for Army battlefield networks and advanced systems.

The panel approved its version of the fiscal 2011 Defense authorization bill, in which it gave $302.4 million for what it called "spinout" technologies from the defunct Army Future Combat Systems program.

Defense Department Secretary Robert Gates all but killed FCS in April 2009. He allowed the Army to continue to develop robots, aerial sensors and advanced networks. The Senate Armed Services Committee, without providing any details, said it partially backed procurement of these systems. A committee spokesman said the details will not be available until later this week, when the report on the Senate bill is completed.

The House had provided $111.6 million, almost two-thirds less than the Senate, in its version of the bill.

The Office of the Management and Budget objected in a statement of administration policy on May 27 to the House's wholesale cuts in the Army's modernization funding for the first stage of equipment called the Early Infantry Brigade Combat Team Increment I. The program will equip infantry units with advanced networks, small tracked robots and small aerial sensor systems.

The House, in an amendment to its version of the bill, added $34.7 million to purchase small unmanned aerial vehicles built by Honeywell Aerospace and $21.3 million to buy small unmanned robots built by iRobot Corp.

The House zeroed out $176.6 million in funds for network integration kits for the Early Infantry Brigade Combat Teams because tests last year showed the kits performed poorly, the cost of $1 million per vehicle was too high and they had limited functionality.

The House cut a total of $682.7 million in overall procurement for the units and prohibited buying equipment to outfit more than two brigades.

OMB said the cuts will delay provision of improved capability to deploying forces by at least 16 months, increase the overall cost to the program and heighten the risk of a break in production.