{"id":38543,"date":"2021-05-27T19:46:29","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T19:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/05\/27\/pentagon-budget-will-shake-up-legacy-systems-lawmakers-are-shaking-back\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:02:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:02:59","slug":"pentagon-budget-will-shake-up-legacy-systems-lawmakers-are-shaking-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2021\/05\/27\/pentagon-budget-will-shake-up-legacy-systems-lawmakers-are-shaking-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon budget will shake up \u2018legacy\u2019 systems. Lawmakers are shaking back."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 A day before details of President Joe Biden\u2019s first defense budget<\/a> will be released, top Pentagon officials asked Congress to let them use the budget to shed unneeded weapons in order to invest in forward-looking technologies now \u2015 but it was not an easy conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an appearance before House appropriators Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the forthcoming budget will spend more on advanced technologies like hypersonics and artificial intelligence, and divest from \u201colder ships, aircraft, and [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] platforms that demand more maintenance, upkeep and risk than we can afford.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy making sure we are focused on acquiring the right kinds of capabilities that we need to be relevant in the future fight, I think this puts us in a good place,\u201d Austin said. \u201cThat requires us to take a hard look with the services with capabilities that will not be relevant in a future fight and really begin to no longer invest in them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said when he became the Army chief of staff six years ago, military budgets were \u201cmortgaging our future to pay for our present.\u201d With an eye on China, the forthcoming budget \u201cis biasing the future over the present, slightly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are trying right now to put down payments on investments that are going to pay huge dividends, five, 10, 15 years from now, for a future force that will be able to compete successfully with any adversary out there, to include China,\u201d Milley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The testimony came amid friction with Capitol Hill over emerging plans from the Navy to decommission two littoral combat ships<\/a> and buy only eight vessels<\/a>, and from the Air Force\u2019s plans to curtail procurement of the C-130 airframe and the MQ-9 Reaper<\/a> drone. It\u2019s a sign of the difficult politics surrounding divestitures from weapons platforms that carry weight for national security as well the communities where they are made, based and maintained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have serious concerns regarding these plans to divest or decommission platforms that are in high demand, or have much service life left in them,\u201d said Rep. Ken Calvert<\/a>, the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee\u2019s defense subpanel. \u201cAlmost every combatant command has told the subcommittee they need more, not less MQ-9 access.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calvert also opposed the Navy\u2019s move to decommission a third and fourth LCS, which have \u201csignificant service life left until there\u2019s a viable replacement.\u201d Lawmakers want the ships transferred to U.S. Southern Command and for the Department of Defense to communicate better with Congress, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCongress reviewed the [Navy\u2019s] request and has been very clear that we oppose the decommissioning of the LCS 3 and 4, and they should be used in the SOUTHCOM [area of responsibility],\u201d Calvert said. \u201cIt\u2019s my understanding that the Navy is ignoring congressional intent and will again propose to decommission these very same ships in the FY22 budget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my opinion this is a little more than a budget gimmick to allow the Navy to spend more money elsewhere,\u201d he added. \u201cI agree there are some systems that must be retired to make way for newer, more effective systems. However, DoD cannot make these decisions in a vacuum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $715 billion defense budget proposal for fiscal 2022<\/a> would be an $11 billion increase, and it just trails the rate of inflation. However, Calvert and other Republican lawmakers back an increase 3-5 percent over inflation, and he said he is \u201cgreatly concerned\u201d Biden\u2019s request will be insufficient to counter China\u2019s growing military might.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, Dec. 17, 2019. (Senior Airman Haley Stevens\/U.S. Air Force)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Reiterating that China is the DoD\u2019s pacing challenge, Austin defended the department\u2019s investments as vital to maintaining America\u2019s advantage, aiding faster analysis and action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNumbers are important, but we will never seek to match our adversaries one for one,\u201d Austin said. \u201cWe will always seek to develop a much greater capability, and that\u2019s our approach. I think we\u2019re on a path to achieving it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Calvert said that after he measured the capabilities of the U.S. and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region against China\u2019s, he remains worried about Chinese aggression against Taiwan and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI still think numbers matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to fears from Texas Republican Rep. John Carter that the Army would become the bill payer for increased Navy and Air Force procurement, Milley offered reassurances the Army\u2019s six-pronged modernization efforts<\/a> will be \u201cwell funded in this budget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Army is not going to get shortchanged,\u201d Milley said. \u201cI\u2019ve looked at this budget very closely. … I think it\u2019s very balanced amongst all the services and develops [the Army\u2019s] future capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, it should \u201ccreate opportunities\u201d for the Army to reshuffle spending, Austin said. However, he noted, all the services must take hard looks at what they\u2019ll really need for a future fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet me assure you that from my perspective our effort is not to make the Army be the bill payer for the Air Force and the Navy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans were not the only ones with concerns. The Defense Subcommittee\u2019s chair, Rep. Betty McCollum<\/a>, D-Minn. said while the DoD indicated it will divest from \u201clegacy\u201d capabilities, the services have no common definition of \u201clegacy,\u201d and neither does Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Austin and Milley conceded that the DoD hadn\u2019t produced a common definition, and Milley said he will work on it at a meeting Friday of the Joint Chiefs, to render advice to Austin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will address this quietly in a closed room with my fellow chiefs,\u201d Milley said. \u201cI think it\u2019s really important that we do have a common definition. And I do think it hinges not so much on the word \u2018legacy\u2019 but on the word \u2018relevance.\u2019 Is it relevant to some future operating environment that we envision against our No. 1 \u2018pacing threat,\u2019 as the secretary calls it \u2014 China.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top Pentagon officials are asking Congress to let them use the upcoming budget to shed unneeded weapons in order to invest in forward-looking technologies now. 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