Special Operations Command Runs on Stable Funding Path.

• Author: Kutner, Joshua A.
• Position: U.S. Special Operations Command

The U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) does not expect a significant budget increase during the next five years, according to the command's acquisition chief. "We're not going to see any major increases in the investment accounts, I don't think, over the [next five years]," said Harry Schulte, SOCOM acquisition executive, based at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. "We may get normal inflation increases, but that's probably all we're expecting to see," he told National Defense in a recent interview.

The Defense Department has approved an additional $700 million for SOCOM during the five-year period. "That translates to a little over $100-$120 million a year," said Schulte. The biggest share of that money will go towards investment in new equipment, he said.

SOCOM's annual budget is about $4 billion, said Schulte. "In very broad terms, about $2 billion of that goes for salaries and personnel. A little over a billion goes to operations and maintenance, and about a billion goes to investment.

The command budgeted $556 million for procurement in fiscal 2002. That's close to $31 million more than what was allocated in fiscal 2001. "If that [additional funding] holds up over the [next five years], you might see our investment up about $100 million a year, which would be good," he added. That could increase the procurement dollars to between $650 million and $700 million, which "would help us modernize some of the systems that we need to modernize sooner."

SOCOM's procurement budget fell from $729 million in 2000, to $525 million in 2001. Schulte explained that there were special circumstances that contributed to this. The reason the 2000 budget was so high was because of congressional plus-ups, he said.

"A couple of unique things happened in 2000," said Schulte. "We got two large congressional plus-ups [that totaled] about $143 million." That means the original procurement budget was about $586 million, which falls in the range of the command's recent budgets.

One of the plus-ups was for the MH-47 Chinook helicopter fleet. The other project was classified.

"So it's not like we took any big dip from 2000 to 2001 in our planned program," said Schulte. He did not deny, however, that the command could use more procurement funding. "Nobody's going to tell you that they can't use more procurement money. But I think the command has supported the investment budget well. ... If we had more money, we could buy CV-22s faster or we could buy ASDSs [Advanced SEAL Delivery System] sooner, but this is a balanced budget throughout the command."

Flagship Programs

The CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft remains a flagship program for SOCOM, despite two crashes during the past year involving the Navy's MV-22, which killed 23 Marines. Pending the results of a panel investigation, SOCOM's acquisition chief believes the V-22 Osprey program will get back on schedule.

"I don't think [the latest accident] will impact the actual production award of the contract," said Schulte. The Navy plans to award the contract in April, he said. "So they've got time between now and then ... to make that decision, and nor impact the contract award, and then not impact the delivery schedule of either the MVs or the CVs that are in...