Testimony on the army budget reveals challenges and future of conflict

The House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the 2009 Army Budget request. Present were Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO), ranking member Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and maybe 15 other members. Testifying were Secretary of the Army Pete Geren and Gen. George Casey Chief of Staff for the Army.

In his opening statement Geren said that Army is stretched, but not hollow. He emphasized that this was the most capable fighting force he had seen in his career. Casey and chairman Skelton said that they foresaw a future of prolonged and constant dynamic conflict worldwide.

The big emphasis from the witnesses was to defend the budget and highlight the four priorities of the Armyspending: sustain the troops in theater, prepare for future conflict, reset the balance of the force interms of troop deployment and equipment and transform the nature of the force to meet future challenges.

To prepare and transform the army needs to train for both counterinsurgency and what Casey called “full spectrum” operations. But current deployment rotations do not allow for this kind of training as troops are 15 months out and only 12 months home. Both witnesses said that these need to be evened out to a one to one ratio. They want to increase home time not only for rest and families but also for this strategic training.

Both witnesses repeated that the Army is stressed and that it is unbalanced. Geren said that he was hopeful that the 09 budget would help grow the army because as he said, “we are too small to meet the commitments we have.”