Request is $143.4 billion, plus $102.2 billion for overseas operations Army budget                   The Army is requesting $143.4 billion for Fiscal Year 2011 and an additional $102.2 billion for overseas contingency operations.           These requests were part of the overall defense request of $549 billion in its base budget and $159 for overseas operations, primarily in Afghanistan and Iraq.          “This represents 1.8 percent real growth,” Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Feb. 1.           It also includes a request to pay for an additional 22,000 active duty soldiers in the overseas contingency operations request.  The base budget has active Army end strength at 547,000; the Army National Guard at 358,200 and the Army Reserve at 205,000.          The overseas contingency requests money for the mobilization of 28,700 Army Reserve soldiers and 52,800 Army National Guard soldiers in the coming fiscal year.            The base budget also requests a 6 percent increase to $6.3 billion for Special Operations Command to expand by 2,800 service members, primarily soldiers.            The request calls for 1.4 percent increases in military and civilian pay, an increase of 4.2 percent in Basic Allowance for Housing and the Basic Allowance for Subsistence and an increase of $500 million to $8.1 billion in military family support programs, including about $440 million to build and repair DoD schools.            A Defense Department press release added, “The FY 2011 budget does begin a five-year plan to replace and recapitalize more than half of the 194 DoD schools.  Funding will address schools in poor or failing condition.”            The Army is asking for over $400 million for selective reenlistment bonuses in the military personnel account. From its operations and maintenance accounts, the Army is seeking $544 million for recruiting and other advertising. About $42 million is requested for the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program from the operations and maintenance account.            The operations and maintenance account also pays for training rotations.  Two are requested for Europe and 12 each from the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., and the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif.            The Army’s request is for $43.9 billion in operations and maintenance, up from $40.6 billion in FY 2010.            Vice Adm. Steve Stanley, J-8, called the personnel programs “a strategic asset to our nation and [reflect] an enduring commitment to the men and women in uniform, our wounded warriors, our fallen heroes and their families.”            It also seeks $1.1 billion for treatment, care and research of Traumatic Brain Injury and psychological health issues, $50.7 billion to fully fund the Military Health System without an increase in fees and co-pays and $16.9 billion for military construction and $1.8 billion for family housing, slight decreases from last year.             Looking at the health care portion of the budget, Gates said, “There has not been an increase in premiums since [TRICARE] was founded in 1995.”  He said that a family of three in the TRICARE system was paying $1,500 in premiums while a family of three in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Programs was paying about $3,300.             He added the department wants to work with Congress on costs because they’re “only going to keep going up.”            DoD said health care costs in its facilities are rising about 4 to 5 percent annually. In the purchased care system, costs are rising about 6 percent per year. The budget reports 9.5 million beneficiaries in the Military Health System.            Kathleen Miller, acting director of the Army budget, said the reason for the decline in military construction is most of the projects for Base Realignment and Closure have been accounted for.  BRAC is to be completed by September 2011.             For example more than $5 billion was spent on BRAC-related activities last year and about $800 million for family housing.             The Army BRAC-related request is for $1.1 billion and $610 million for family housing.             Defense Comptroller Robert Hale said, “We hope to have everyone out of [the National Security Personnel System] by the end of the year” and is seeking $296 million to cover the costs.  “If you’re between two steps [in the general schedule] you will go to the higher step.”            The request also includes money to continue the Department of Defense’s in-sourcing program, especially in procurement. About 22,000 civilians are expected to be hired over the next four years to fill those positions.            He also said that the Office of Management and Budget has again requested full Concurrent Receipt for retirees with service-connected disabilities.  “But there will have to be an offset” in other entitlement programs.            Hale warned Congress not to boost the pay increase by a half percent.  He said that would add about $500 million this year and would have a cumulative effect on future spending particularly in training and equipping.            He said the defense budget is expected to grow 1 percent over inflation over each of the five years following FY 2011. Most other cabinet departments are in a three-year spending freeze.             He said the growth was needed to sustain the armed forces training and equipping needs.            The base budget request and the overseas operations request represent about 4.7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), he added.            Complete budget information is available at www.budget.mil. Army asks for $20 billion to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan             The Army is requesting $20 billion in supplemental spending to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq for this fiscal year.            About $11.7 billion will be targeted to operations and maintenance – including $7.6 billion for theater operations and support and base camp expansion.             An additional $1.8 billion is being sought in procurement accounts for force protection and base camps and $1.7 billion in military personnel accounts to finance reserve component mobilization, special pays and subsistence.            Robert Hale, the Defense Department comptroller, said congressional approval was needed before Memorial Day. The overall DoD supplemental request is $33 billion. Funding necessary for combat vehicle design and aircraft procurement                      While the Army does not expect to let a contract in Fiscal Year 2011 for a new ground combat vehicle, the service is requesting about $3.2 billion to spin-off technologies from the Future Combat Systems to today’s units and continue working on vehicle design.            In aircraft procurement, the Army is requesting $459 million for 26 Sky Warrior unmanned aerial vehicles; $1.35 billion for 72 UH-60 and HH-60M Black Hawk helicopters; $887 million to modernize 16 AH-64 Block III Apaches; $326 million for 50 UH-72A Lakota Light Utility helicopter; $505 for 46 Shadow UAVs; and $1.15 billion to convert or build 40 CH-47 Chinook D to F model.            The aircraft request is $6 billion, up from $5.3 billion.            At the same time, the Army is requesting $1.8 billion for research, development, test and evaluation accounts to improve aircraft and vehicle survivability and improve intelligence collection.            Funds are also being requested to stand up two aviation brigades and step up air crew training.            The increase in the Army’s aircraft account reflects Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ drive to balance the force to succeed in current military operations that need more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms and helicopters.            “We have stripped the other combatant commanders of their ISR capabilities” that have shown their value not only in military operations but in counter-narcotics and disaster relief operations.            In missile and ammunition, the Army is requesting $480 million for 78 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles; $164 million for 750 Javelin missiles; $291 million for 2,500 Ground Multiple Launch Rocket Systems; $350 million for 23 Non Line of Sight Launcher Systems; $1.1 billion for critical training ammunition.            In weapons and tracked combat vehicles, the Army is requesting $300 million for 83 Strykers; $231 million for 87 M1A1 Abrams situational awareness kits; $215 million for 58 Bradley situational awareness kits; $147 million for survivability enhancements on Strykers; $105 million  for 18 Paladin integrated management systems; $80 million for 5,900 M2 .50 cal machine guns.            The weapons and tracked combat vehicle request is down to $1.7 billion from $2.5 billion in FY 2010.The budget also ends Army-only buys of Humvees.            The Army is also seeking about $1.47 billion to modernize its light and heavy tactical vehicles.  The Brigade Combat Team modernization program is requesting $2.5 billion.            The Defense Department is asking for $21.3 billion to repair, replace and reset equipment from Iraq in its overseas contingency operations request. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the contingency request is seeking $1 billion to buy 15,000 Mine-Resistant Armor-Protected vehicles.  Six thousand and six hundred will be the all-terrain model.  Also in the request is $3.4 billion to sustain the MRAPs. Quadrennial Defense Review’s top priority is to prevail in ‘today’s conflicts’              Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he believed that construct of having the armed forces positioned to wage two major regional wars “was out of date.”            Speaking to reporters on the release of the Defense Department’s budget and the Quadrennial Defense Review Feb. 1, he asked “What if we had a major domestic disaster … a Haiti?”            He said the department was doing just that now and fighting two regional wars.            Michelle Flournoy, deputy under secretary for policy, said the review and the budget “put top priority in prevailing in today’s conflicts.” It stresses intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, aircraft and language skills as combat enablers.            The enablers “include rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, intelligence analysis and foreign language expertise, and tactical communications networks … as well space-based assets, more effective electronic, attack systems, more resilient base infrastructure … for effective operations against future adversaries.” The review is designed to “preserve and enhance the All-Volunteer Force” in a changed security environment, Flournoy said.            “We must be able to project power in a number of regions.”  Adding, the spending priorities in the review maximize “versatility across the spectrum of conflict.”            The review also called for a Defense Department adopting a “more sophisticated” relationship with industry, “one that takes into account the rapid evolution of commercial technology, as well as the unique requirements of the department.”            DoD will not “underwrite sunset industries and prop up poor business models,” the review said.             It also noted that defense industry consolidation “contracted around 20th century platforms rather than developing the broad and flexible portfolio of systems that today’s security environment demands.”