STATEMENT BY THE CHIEF OF STAFF, UNITED STATES ARMY I welcome Mr. Chairman, Members of the House Appropriations Committee. the opportunity to report on the state of today's Army and on our FY87 budget. While the Army Posture Statement provides a comprehensive discussion of our military capability, I want to focus on the importance of modernization and the essentiality of maintaining the momentum of Army programs. As you know, our national strategy calls for deterring potential hostilities across the full spectrum of conflict. This involves protecting our global interests and safeguarding the United States, its Allies, and friends from aggression and coercion. The world of today is now more dangerous than ever before. We see the growth of international terrorism, the spread of low intensity conflicts in the Third World, the relentless expansion of Soviet inflience in such countries as Afghanistan, Cuba, Nicaragua, Libya, South Yemen, Syria, and North Korea, and the Soviets' substantial investment in the modernization of their armed forces estimated to be from 15 to 17 percent of their FNP. - All of this means that peace and U.S. interests around the world continue to be threatened. This also means that the prescription for deterring hostilities across the spectrum of conflict calls for balance between U.S. strategic and conventional forces, maintaining readiness and modernization of these forces, assuring top quality personnel to man our forces, and keeping national vigilance. The conflicts of this century, including the war against terrorism, reaffirm that wars are ultimately fought to control land, people, and resources. While all of our military services have the capability to influence these elements of national power, only ground forces can exert decisive and lasting control over them. In the nuclear era, landpower has become increasingly important to U.S. military strategy as a greater share of the burden of deterrence shifts to modern, conventional ground forces. The strength of our deterrence is established by forward stationed forces, integral to alliances, and by rapidly deployable forces that can move to troubled areas of the world so that they can influence events to our advantage. This is why the Army must recruit and retain high quality soldiers in the small active Army as well as the Reserve Components; and why we must maintain balanced forces from Special Operations Forces and light divisions, for rapid deployment worldwide, to heavy forces which are essential for high intensity combat and NATO defense. It is also why the Army must continue modernizing its equipment to keep pace with the threat and with technological advances. Thanks to the American people and to the Congress, solid improvements have been made in recent years to the Army's military capability. In order to continue this kind of progress in FY 1987 we are requesting 80.6 billion dollars. This investment is necessary if our small Army is to be an Army of Excellence: one that is ready, responsive, and responsible. The Secretary of the Army and I share a common vision of how the Total Army Active and Reserve Components should prepare for land combat both 11 - today and tomorrow. The elements of this vision are: O To provide quality soldiers and strong families in the Active and Reserve Components. O To field a flexible, modernized force to fight across the conflict spectrum. O To develop high technology and productivity enhancements. O To fight and sustain as part of joint and combined forces. O To improve tactical and strategic deployability. This vision keeps in view the developments of our potential adversaries as well as the promise of the high technology and industrial advantages enjoyed by the U.S. and its Allies. The doctrine and organizational concepts are in place to enable the Army to realize its vision. With your support and that of our citizenry, we will move forward, always ready and prepared to serve the interests of our great Nation. |