ROA calls on Congress to modernize the reserve components

Following a congressional hearing on the FY 2025 defense budget request, ROA urged Congress to modernize reserve component equipment capabilities.

WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, May 13, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Reserve Organization of America’s executive director, retired U.S. Army major general Jeffrey E. Phillips, on May 6 issued a statement on ROA’s defense priorities for FY 2025. ROA’s priorities align with the needs identified by the reserve chiefs in an April 30 congressional hearing, including modernizing the U.S. Army Reserve’s High Mobility Multipurpose Vehicle fleet.

“Older, less capable HMMWV models are not meeting the USAR’s readiness needs. This is problematic because the HMMWV is an enduring platform for the total Army and has a significant role for the foreseeable future,” wrote Phillips. “To overcome the Army Reserve’s readiness challenges posed by the current HMMWV fleet, ROA urges support for appropriating $100 million in the FY 2025 Defense Appropriations Act for USAR HMMWV modernization.”

The HMMWV (hum-vee) is a lightweight, multi-capability four-wheel drive tactical vehicle that, like its ubiquitous predecessor, the “jeep,” has become essential to military operations from anti-tank defense to ambulance missions.

The USAR has nearly 18,000 HMMWVs in its inventory that are mission critical. More than half are beyond their useful life, with subpar operational readiness ratings: they have limited payload, less efficient powertrains, lower electrical load capability, and cannot be armored when the mission requires.

At the April 30 hearing, Chief of Army Reserve Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels testified that the aging HMMWV fleet is “reducing our ability to respond to crises and risking Soldiers’ safety” and “. . . the Army Reserve requires modernization funding for our aging HMMWV fleet, which will remain mission critical at home and overseas for the foreseeable future.”

Beyond the operational benefit, modernized HMMWVs will help ensure the viability of the HMMWV industrial base, which includes more than 1,000 suppliers across 43 states.

HMMWV modernization is not new to Congress, which established a multi-year plan to modernize the aging Army National Guard HMMWV fleet nearly a decade ago. The program was successful, with more than 4,500 HMMWVs modernized.

As the largest reserve component, with advocacy clout in its state governors and legislatures, the ARNG often – but not always – fares better than the federal reserve components in receiving appropriations for equipment and procurement. Regardless, all the reserve components too often get the “short end of the stick.”

To help correct this deficiency, ROA also identified equipment priorities for the reserve components, including:

o Recapitalizing the U.S. Navy Reserve’s KC-130T fleet with modern KC-130J aircraft.
o Accelerating the concurrent and proportional fielding of the JLTV for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.
o Enhancing the Air National Guard’s Remote Piloted Aircraft capability.
o Enabling the Air Force Reserve to replace the aging C-130H with the more economical and capable C-130J and field additional F-15EX Eagle II aircraft.

Despite constituting close to 45 percent of the Total Force, the reserve components’ allocation of defense procurement is less than 10 percent of the total defense allocation. This creates equipment inequities that harm readiness and compromise interoperability, as is the case with the Army Reserve’s HMMWV fleet.

The FY 2025 budget cycle process is well underway, and ROA will fight relentlessly for modernizing the USARs HMMWV fleet and all its defense-wide priorities.

Matthew Schwartzman
Reserve Organization of America
mschwartzman@roa.org
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ROA's legislation and military policy director Matthew Schwartzman unveils the Association's FY 2025 defense budget priorities from Capitol Hill.