A few days after Congress passed a $1.2 trillion spending package, ending the threat of a government shutdown, Undersecretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo said the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations provide critical funding that will allow the Army to continue to invest in key capabilities.
The $825 billion defense appropriations bill includes $23.7 billion to the Army for procurement and $17.1 billion overall in Army research, development, test, and evaluation, according to Camarillo, the Army’s chief operating officer and chief management officer.
“It will sustain Army modernization with key investments that I would point out include our multi-year authority” for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System and Patriot Advanced Capability-3, Camarillo said at his keynote speech on March 26 at the 2024 Global Force Symposium. The Association of the U.S. Army’s three-day event was held at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville.
It will also provide more than $1 billion for the continued development of the long-range hypersonic weapon and almost $4 billion for combat vehicle programs.
“Looking ahead, I was very pleased earlier this month to be able to roll out the Army’s FY 2025 budget submission, and it builds on the ’24 budget in some critical ways,” he said. “It will continue our focus on modernization with a combined request of $38.5 billion in RDT&E and procurement.”
The Army’s total 2025 request, unveiled on March 11, is $185.9 billion.
Among other provisions, it will enable the Army to buy new counter-unmanned aircraft systems.
Camarillo said the reason for bringing up the FY 2025 request on the heels of the passage of the FY 2024 funding package is this: “We need Congress to pass this ‘25 budget in a timely fashion. As we have learned this last year, without the budget, you will not have the ability to start new programs and you will not be able to implement changes and shifts that are required by changing conditions on the battlefield and emerging technology.”
He also addressed the $95 billion national security supplemental legislation, now pending in the U.S. House, that would provide aid for Ukraine and Israel.
“It contains critical industrial base investments needed to fully address the Army’s needs,” Camarillo said. The Army has said it needs $3.1 billion to buy 155-millimeter artillery rounds and expand production to quickly replace stocks depleted by shipments to Ukraine and Israel.
Investments in the Army’s programs “are not only vital to us but they are really vital to you as well,” Camarillo said to the audience in the Concert Hall. “They will create demand for U.S. systems, (they) will provide resources, revenue and, most importantly, create jobs across the network of all of our domestic suppliers here in the United States.”
Conferences like the Global Force Symposium that bring together Army and industry personnel provide “a great opportunity for all of you to hear where we’re headed, where we’re placing emphasis in our modernization, what investments we’re making,” he said. He said it also gives the Army a chance to hear about industry’s capabilities and challenges.
During a senior leader roundtable after his keynote address, Camarillo said: “We were very pleased with the FY ‘24 appropriation. I think it will enable us to do some interesting, creative things across the Army.
“We still want to continue to make the push for the supplemental, which is needed to get our industrial base healthy.”
