Equipment woes: Army to extend 'rapid fielding' effort for war-bound units, domestic needs.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: BATTLEFIELD GEAR

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IN LESS THAN four years, the Army has equipped nearly a million soldiers with modern combat gear.

But that is not nearly enough, officials said. The Army now expects to continue the ramp-up of equipment deliveries for several more years, in order to meet the copious requests from units rotating into Iraq, and to appease critics in Congress who insist that--contrary to Army leaders' assertions--Reserve and National Guard units have yet to be properly outfitted for domestic missions.

The Army's program executive office for soldiers says it plans to expand the "rapid fielding initiative" program that began in late 2003 as an emergency effort to supply essential combat garments and survival gear.

The rapid fielding initiative, or RFI, continues to be managed as a short-term emergency procurement, but now the Army wants to turn it into a permanent acquisition program. "Our mission has changed," said Sam Parrish, deputy director of the rapid fielding initiative at Fort Belvoir, Va. "We were going to end the RFI program in September 2007, after equipping more than a million soldiers in the entire operational Army."

When the Army spearheaded the RFI pro gram in 2004, it did not expect that rotations would continue for so many years. Much of the equipment has had to be frequently replaced because of wear and tear. Units also often leave much of their hardware in Iraq when they return to the United States, which creates additional demands for equipment for training and for homeland defense or natural disaster recovery operations.

"The Army learned that there will always be evolving requirements," Parrish said.

But while the Army decided that the RFI program will keep on going, it has yet to come to grips with how to fund it.

The program executive office for soldiers has an annual budget of $5.4 billion for procurement and development of new gear, but it funds the $1.5 billion-a-year RFI program via war emergency supplemental appropriations.

With Congress likely to turn down funding requests for procurement programs in supplemental war appropriations, the Army is now trying to enlarge its regular budget so it can continue the RFI program without the uncertainty associated with emergency bills, Parrish said.

"We want this to be program dollars," he said.

It costs about $2,000 per soldier to supply the basic "mission essential" RFI gear: helmet, boots, ballistic spectacles, cold weather garments, earplugs, gloves, goggles...