Armed Forces News

Army Pfc. Daniel Candales, assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, uses the tactical robotic controller to control the expeditionary modular autonomous vehicle as a practice exercise in preparation for Project Convergence at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., October 19, 2021. During Project Convergence 21, Soldiers are experimenting with using the vehicle for semi-autonomous reconnaissance and re-supply. (Army photo by Sgt. Marita Schwab)

The Army will continue to have difficulty planning for the future as long as Congress continues to rely upon resolutions as funding mechanisms, the service’s chief sustainment officer believes.

“Obviously, we wouldn’t be able to start any new work,” said Gen. Ed Daly, head of Army Materiel Command, during a virtual discussion with the Defense Writers’ Group, as reported by the Association of the U.S Army (AUSA). “Then, there’s implications beyond that to the modernization signature programs in terms of certain decisions that can and can’t be made.”

AUSA reported that the Army, like the other armed services, has been functioning on a funding resolution since Oct. 1. Under the resolution, which allows for no funding increases, the service cannot initiate any new modernization efforts.

Daly said that the service must maintain its organic industrial base – 23 depots, arsenals and ammunition plants – during peacetime so that their operations can surge in times of conflict. This base employs roughly 30,000 people, AUSA reported.

“It [entails] not only the facility the processes, the technologies, the robotics, but also really retraining the workforce and realigning the workforce so that they can remain relevant and essential and critical to the process,” Daly said.

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