The latest ‘night court’ review carried out by top US Army leaders has freed more than $1.2bn from the service’s legacy programmes.
As per an official document released by US Army budget officials, the entire list of programmes includes 39 reductions and 41 eliminations.
More than $868.9m was freed from the reductions and $324.1m from the eliminations.
The complete list includes smaller savings such as $1.4m on nine FIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and $303,000 from six M102 non-lethal reloadable grenades, more than $3.4m in lasers, $4.8m in armour protection kits, and $1.6m in defence cyber tools and other programmes.
The larger savings came from reducing $222m in M2 Bradley upgrades and more than $122m from Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System elimination.
Savings would be used to finance modernisation projects in the fiscal 2021 budget request.
The projects include long-range precision fires, the next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical airlift, tactical network, air and missile defence, and soldier lethality.
The US Army has requested a budget of $178bn for the fiscal year 2021 (FY21). This is $2.2bn fewer than the fiscal 2020 budget.
Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy said: “The [fiscal 2021] budget of $178bn will ensure the army will remain the most lethal ground fighting force in the world now and in the future.
“We treat taxpayer dollars like we treat our ammunition, every bullet counts and it’s aimed at the target. The demand for army forces paired against a flat budget has forced tough fiscal decisions.”
In order to fund modernisation, an additional $9bn has been projected to be spread over the next five years in the Future Years Defense Programme (FYDP).
