{"id":27605,"date":"2020-03-04T18:06:39","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T18:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/04\/mccarthy-without-budget-growth-army-heads-toward-collision-course\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:18:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:18:37","slug":"mccarthy-without-budget-growth-army-heads-toward-collision-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/land\/2020\/03\/04\/mccarthy-without-budget-growth-army-heads-toward-collision-course\/","title":{"rendered":"McCarthy: Without budget growth, Army heads toward \u2018collision course\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Without top-line growth<\/a> in the U.S. Army\u2019s future budgets, the service is headed toward a \u201ccollision course,\u201d Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said March 4 at the McAleese Defense Programs Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army has already gone through two-and-a-half years of deep budget scrubs<\/a> through its \u201cnight court\u201d process, which seeks to find funding areas in the budget that don\u2019t align with the National Defense Strategy and the service\u2019s modernization efforts, and moves those dollars into accounts that meet its priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Army\u2019s first night court, the chief, secretary, vice chief and undersecretary presided over decisions \u2014 big and small, easy and tough \u2014 for roughly 600 programs, shifting $33 billion from programs across the fiscal 2020 through FY24 five-year plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In FY20, the Army is investing $8.6 billion in modernization efforts and, across the next five years, investing a total of $57 billion, a 137 percent increase from the previous year\u2019s five-year plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army found another roughly 80 programs to scale back or cancel in order to free up funding in FY21, but Army leadership has admitted it\u2019s getting harder and harder<\/a> to find low-hanging fruit in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army is now in the process of conducting its night court for FY22 in order to try to find more money to align with its modernization goals. Officials will have to start making choices in terms of restructuring procurement accounts to begin the divestiture of current capabilities in the force to make room for future programs that will enter Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) in the comings years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that may not be enough if the Army doesn\u2019t get an increased top line of 3 to 5 percent in future budget years, McCarthy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is going to be a challenge for us in \u201822 and \u201823 when [modernization programs] start to mature, we have to make choices in this milestone process, you start buying LRIP tranches,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t