The United States is strong and a bastion of freedom. Its citizens are a free people and to a great extent, its strength flows from that freedom. The United States has abundant resources and a dynamic and productive population. It wields enormous political power and has the world’s largest economy. Without a strong military to protect its interests at home and abroad, our freedom is at risk. In this context, the Army’s resource problem is only a part of a larger defense budget shortfall. Defense expenditures are down as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from more than 6 percent in FY86 to 3.6 percent in FY05 (not including supplemental funding). This funding is insufficient in the face of a more complex and unstable world. The Army currently receives approximately 24 percent of the Department of Defense (DoD) budget – which is insufficient to maintain current operational commitments while simultaneously resetting the Current Force and transforming to the Future Force. The Army portion of the Defense base budget must increase to at least 28 percent. Additionally, DoD budget funding must increase to more than 4 percent of the GDP in order to provide the Nation an acceptable level of defense.

All of the Army’s combat divisions (active and reserve) have seen action in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq. These challenging and extraordinarily dangerous times demand an Army capable of dominating any adversary, anywhere and any time, on America’s behalf. Our Army is transforming while at war. Simultaneously, the Army must prepare for contingencies to defend the Nation from other emerging threats. To meet today’s challenge; the Army is executing a continuous adaptive cycle of innovation and experimentation based on experience.

The Army’s sustained rotation of forces is a reflection of the challenging and different 21st Century operational environment. The Nation must continue to adjust capabilities and redirect more resources to win the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) while preparing for future challenges. The Army continues an aggressive organizational transformation necessary to sustain continuous and enduring GWOT rotational commitments worldwide by creating a force of 70 Active Component (AC) and Reserve Component (RC) modular Brigade Combat Teams (BCT). Stryker BCT’s form part of the 70 BCT force and continued funding for the 7th Stryker BCT is required. The increased number of BCTs provides broad-spectrum capabilities, sustains rotational employment and will be agile to support the broad range of missions from combat to peacekeeping operations.

The funded end strength of our Active Army must be increased to 650,000 Soldiers, the Army National Guard must be maintained at 350,000 and the Army Reserve must be maintained at 205,000.

All Army programs are highly interdependent and tightly integrated in support of the unit rotation plan, unit conversions in support of modularity, recapitalization and acceleration of Future Combat Systems (FCS) technologies into the Current Force. Reduction or delay of either base program dollars or supplemental funding will introduce increasingly unacceptable risk and turbulent disruptions to the force. The most significant near-term resourcing challenge facing the Army is to gain and retain additional timely funding to the current base program, to transform the Army, to sustain the rotation of combat forces in support of GWOT, to execute current BRAC decisions and to prepare for future commitments while resetting an Army at war without degradation to the Army’s investment in the Future Force. The Army requires considerable resources to sustain the current pace of operations while at the same time modernizing our force for the future.

There is a decade-long funding deficit for Army facilities and installations, resulting in a backlog of repairs and maintenance of more than $17 billion. As a result, facilities on Army installations have an average age of more than 40 years and a recapitalization cycle of approximately 144 years. The Army Military Construction (MILCON) request has been adjusted to reflect BRAC installation decisions and now contains the vital MILCON funds to support the Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) model and Global Defense Posturing Review (GDPR) unit rotation and basing requirements. Delayed MILCON funding induces serious risk as it affects total synchronization. Increased funding must be provided to achieve the Army’s target of reducing the facilities recapitalization cycle to 67 years. National Guard Armories and Army Reserve Centers are often the most visible Army presence in communities throughout the United States. Many armories and centers are aging, outdated or unsafe, and need to be renovated or replaced.

Rapidly changing demands and increasing complexity of the 21st Century battle space require speed and useful materiel solutions to enhance mission capabilities and reduce risk to the Soldier. Additional investment dollars commensurate with mission requirements must be allocated for training, maintenance, reset, recapitalization and modernization of the Current Force, and for accelerating the research and development in support of the Future Force. The Army continues to commit resources toward promising future technologies through the FCS and has begun to “spin out” these technologies into the Current Force to enhance broad-spectrum capabilities and force protection in support of GWOT.

Timely and adequate Operations and Maintenance (O&M) funding directly supports AC and RC readiness by enabling sufficient training and supply of equipment repair parts and other consumables. Adequate O&M funding for AC and RC units is essential. Full time manning and funding for RC units is also a direct determinant of RC readiness and training.

As the Army fights the Global War on Terrorism, it is transforming into a modular force and repositioning units throughout the world via the GDPR. As the Army implements these two unprecedented undertakings, it is also preparing to execute installation realignment and closure decisions flowing from Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). The task is massive in scope: fight a war, transform to a modern modular force, and bring home about 70,000 Soldiers and 100,000 family members from consolidated installations and facilities around the globe while realigning and closing selected installations. Failure to execute these tasks in a timely fashion due to resource shortfalls, will negatively impact unit readiness, unit rotations in support of GWOT and place immeasurable strain and reduced Quality of Life (QOL) on Soldiers and their families.

Installation transformation is an integral part of the overall Army Transformation to a modular force and requires continued improvement and sustainment over time if installations are to become “flagships of readiness”. There cannot be a “time out” for readiness at installations. Soldier QOL, a critical component to overall unit readiness, is nonnegotiable. Costs associated with the approved base closures and GDPR must be funded up-front by the Congress.

The Army’s operational fleet (Aviation, Wheeled and Tracked Vehicles) support and complement every facet of military operations. Readiness of the fleet is critical for full spectrum Army mission success. The increased Operational Tempo (OPTEMPO) of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, combined with harsh environments, combat damage and attrition, has taken a heavy toll on the Army’s fleet. To ensure the Army is fully prepared to satisfy contingency operation requirements, support synchronization of deployments and continue transformation, it is imperative the Army is fully resourced in a continuous and timely manner to reset its operational fleet.

WE THEREFORE RESOLVE to urge the Administration and Congress to:

• Increase the Army share of the DoD budget to at least 28 percent
  
  
• Increase base defense budget funding to more than 4 percent of the GDP
  
  
• Support the creation, training, basing and sustaining of 70 (42 AC, 28 Army National Guard (ARNG)) modular BCTs in accordance with The Army Plan and the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review Report
  
  
• Authorize and fund an Active Army end strength of 650,000 Soldiers, the Army National Guard must be maintained at 350,000 and the Army Reserve must be maintained at 205,000 within the Army base budget, which includes all associated costs
  
  
• Fund timely, non-offsetting supplemental appropriations concurrent with the execution of the GWOT and other unprogrammed contingencies to prevent diversion of other programmed funds
  
  
• Provide full and timely funding for base closures and global rebasing to include personnel, infrastructure and QOL costs
  
  
• Expedite and fully fund the Army MILCON program
  
  
• Fund facilities recapitalization to meet the Army’s target (67 year benchmark)
  
  
• Fund new construction for the Reserve Component to replace aging, outdated and unsafe facilities
  
  
• Fund Individual and Unit training dollars
  
  
• Fund in a timely manner supplemental appropriation support for resetting the force
  
  
• Authorize and fund Army RC full-time manning requirements and Army Civilian Workforce authorizations at 100 percent
  
  
• Continue funding for the Stryker BCTs, and continue to support funding for a 7th Stryker BCT
  
  
• Fund Operations & Maintenance to sustain readiness
  
  
• Fund spare parts in the FY08 Base and Supplemental requests so there are no shortages
  
  
• Continue to fund Army recruiting and retention programs
  
  
• Fund the Army’s equipment and technology initiatives
  
  
• Support the establishment of a Transfer Account that better enables the Army to manage funding
  
  
• Fund the accelerated modernization of RC equipment
  
  
• Support the rebalance of the force between the AC and the RC