The defense secretary told the the Senate Appropriations Committee that $3.4 billion of an emergency spending request will continue “the important transformation of the U.S. Army into modular brigade combat teams.
Testifying March 9 on the supplemental spending request for more than $70 billion primarily for military and State Department operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, USMC, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the money “allows the Army to transform while it is at war.”
Pace said the plans takes 33 brigades and, after resetting, builds them to 42 independently deployable brigades.
“It’s taking the National Guard, that had 15 enhanced brigades, and building those to 28 fully modularized brigades manned and equipped to enter the battlefield as well,” Pace said.
Adding, these changes will reduce stress on the force and families and make deployments more predictable.
The plan for the active Army is deployment once every three years and once every five years for the Army Reserve and once every six years for the Army National Guard.
Pace said there are 17 Army brigades deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Army’s plan “gives us 18 to 19 brigades that are sustainable for as long into the future as we need to, and the rest of the force available to surge if needed.”
Rumsfeld said the request also contains funds to develop capabilities of allies to counter terrorists in their countries.
Estimating the cost of training and equipping an American soldier at $90,000 a year and doing the same for an Iraqi soldier at $40,000 a year and an Afghan soldier at $11,000 a year, he voiced concern over the House Appropriations committee vote to cut $1 billion from the $5.9 billion request to support Afghan and Iraqi forces.
“In my view, that is clearly an important an enormously important thing for our country to be doing and it unquestionably is cost-effective.”
He added that the request contained relative small sums for similar training in the Philippines and the Republic of Georgia.
“When allies control their own territory, it is less likely American forces will be needed,” Pace said.