In a related matter, Pentagon cancels weapons research program.
By PETER ROPER THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
June 25, 2009 12:04 am
The
House Appropriations Committee approved the 2010 Pentagon budget Tuesday night, including Colorado Rep. John Salazar's year-to-year ban
on the Army spending any money to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site.
The
Pinon Canyon language is expected to remain unchanged when the full
House takes up the Defense Department spending bill soon. If approved
by the Senate as well, it would be the third year in a row that
Congress has agreed to bar the Army from spending money on expanding
the 238,000-acre training area northeast of Trinidad.
Salazar, a
three-term Democrat, serves on the House appropriations panel and put
his funding ban into the 2010 military construction budget a week ago.
In
a related matter, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the
cancellation of the Army's $160 billion Future Combat Systems project
Tuesday. That effort was aimed at developing new manned and unmanned
vehicles that would be the backbone of the Army's future strategy of
relying on rapid response forces armed with high-technology weaponry.
The
FCS project has been mentioned as a major reason the Army wants to
expand the Pinon Canyon training area, predicting it would need larger
training areas in the future for the high-tech weapons that would be
developed through FCS.
The Army's first request to expand Pinon Canyon called for an additional 418,000 acres but that was whittled to just 100,000 acres last year after the Army encountered opposition from ranchers in Southeastern Colorado as well as opponents in the Colorado Legislature and Congress.
Ashton
Carter, Gates' undersecretary for acquisition, issued an order Tuesday
for the Army to stop work on the FCS program as soon as possible. He
said the Pentagon would use any "spin-out" technology from the project
thus far to improve the Army's current vehicles and weapons. Among
those items under development are improved robotics and unmanned aerial
drones.
The FCS program has been working on new manned and
unmanned heavy duty combat vehicles, including self-propelled cannons
that could fire computer-guided rounds. The program, however, has been
plagued with cost overruns and performance issues. Gates told a Senate
committee in April the Pentagon was likely to shift spending priorities
to more immediate needs and away from high-priced, future programs such
as FCS.
