Washington Pulse

September 2005

Army to Commit $7 Billion for Guard Gear

Reported by Sandra I. Erwin

The Army National Guard’s equipment wish list, also known as “unfunded requirements,” has grown over the years to nearly $14 billion. But help may be on the way. A considerable commitment of forces to the Iraq war—with eight brigades now deployed—is likely to earn the Guard a substantial payback in the form of new hardware. The Army is expected to fund at least $7 billion of the Guard’s wish list during the next six years, said Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau. “This is real commitment … not tokenism,” said Blum. “We will have more money for equipment in the next two to three years than I normally would have seen in 20 years.”

Army Designs Brand-New Armor Kit for Humvee

By next summer, the Army expects to begin shipping a newly redesigned armor kit for Humvee trucks in Iraq. That appliqué armor will offer the same level of protection currently available only in factory-armored Humvees. The armor will be made with a steel-aluminum alloy and will be far easier to install than current kits, said Richard McClelland, director of the Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command’s research, development and engineering center.

Protecting U.S. troops from roadside bombs in Iraq increasingly has become more difficult, as insurgents continue to beef up the size of the explosives they use, said Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of the Multinational Brigade-Northwest. In number and frequency, improvised bombs have decreased, “but the lethality has remained very, very high,” he told reporters. “We are seeing larger amounts of explosives … different types of penetrators, different techniques of triggering the events.”

Marines Lament Shift to Special Ops Command

Up to 2,500 Marines will be leaving the regular Corps to join a new branch of the U.S. Special Operations Command. The move comes at a time when SOCOM—which includes commandos from the Army, Navy and Air Force—is running short of personnel. Pentagon leaders apparently liked the idea of boosting SOCOM ranks with elite Marine force reconnaissance units. The Corps, which has long resisted joining SOCOM, is going along with the plan, although officials acknowledge that not everyone is happy with the decision. “Those people are fairly high-skilled. Losing those sage individuals would be a cost to us,” said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, head of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Privately, Marine officials at the Pentagon have complained about the Corps having to pick up the cost of the equipment that Marines will be taking to SOCOM.

More Foreign-Policy Crises Loom for U.S.

If the U.S. government needs a truly compelling reason to aggressively tackle the AIDS crisis in Africa, now it has one: Al Qaeda leaders are considering recruiting suicide bombers among the terminally ill, who would have nothing to lose, said Rear Adm. Chris Parry, director of joint doctrine and concepts at the U.K. Ministry of Defense. “They have AIDS and they are going to die anyway,” he said. “It’s a huge problem.” An AIDS crisis also is brewing in Russia. A combination of AIDS, terrorism and economic doldrums has turned that country into a hopeless “basket case,” Parry said.

The United States, meanwhile, should work on developing a “grown-up” relationship with Iran, Parry said. “I think that once you stop being paranoid, Iran is a place where you’ll be taking holidays in 20 years.” If America plays Iran right, he added, “You’ll have a good relationship, even if, at the end of the day, you can’t stop them from getting nuclear weapons.”

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