Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

Spending On The Wrong Weapons: What the Pentagon Should be Buying for Iraq and Afghanistan

by Christopher Hellman [contact information]

December 1, 2003

On November 2, a U.S. Army CH-47D "Chinook" helicopter was shot down near Bagdad by a surface-to-air missile, killing 16 and injuring 20. The helicopter was part of an Illinois-Iowa National Guard unit attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. An investigation into the incident revealed that at least six of the fourteen Chinooks in the unit arrived in the Gulf without the air defense systems used on helicopters assigned to active duty units, according to Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL). Further, while the downed helicopter did carry these defensive systems at the time of the shoot down, this equipment was not installed on the unit's aircraft until months after their deployment, and was of lesser quality than the systems available to front-line units.

In addition to helicopter air defense systems, U.S. military units have experienced shortages of other critical equipment. Nearly one-quarter of the troops stationed in Iraq lack the latest body armor, which, unlike the older style, is designed to protect personnel from high-velocity ammunition, the type used in the ubiquitous AK-47 assault rifle. And the services are also experiencing a shortage of "up-armored" Humvees, a more heavily armored version of the military's equivalent of a sport utility vehicle. According to Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, there are 800 armored Humvees in Iraq, but he would like 900 more.

This type of equipment is intended to protect troops from small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and mines -- the weapons of choice in the vast majority of attacks against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq since President George W. Bush announced the end of major combat operations on May 1.

These are three of the best-known examples of the equipment shortfalls being experienced by the services in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet dozens of additional items and technologies have been identified by the services as they evaluate their operational requirements. Some are longer-term matters, while others, like these force protection measures, require immediate attention.

These include numerous small, relatively inexpensive and technologically simple items. For example, front line units are putting high priority on equipment for storming individual buildings, including shotguns (which are considered preferable to battering rams for breaching doorways), bolt cutters, "Quickie Saws" (a concrete and steel-cutting tool), modular entry tools (a combination sledgehammer, bolt cutter and axe with interchangeable handles), folding ladders for accessing second floor windows, and grappling hooks for clearing barbed wire. These tools are essential for what the services refer to as Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT). This is a far cry from the type of maneuver warfare that the U.S. military has trained and equipped for over the last fifty years.

Further, the Army has found that many troops are purchasing their own equipment to either supplement or replace standard issue. Purchases include rifle slings and pistol holsters, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems, and desert uniforms and boots. Other items include night-vision goggles, shortwave radios, extra ammunition carriers, commercial backpacks, lip balm, wraparound sunglasses for eye protection against sand, and baby wipes.

What the requests from front-line troops and unit reports don't include are the kinds of big-ticket, Cold War-era weapons that continue to dominate the Pentagon's annual budget. Programs like the F/A-22 fighter aircraft (which carries a total program cost of $70 billion), the "Virginia" attack submarine ($73 billion), the F/A-18E/F fighter aircraft ($49 billion), the "Comanche" helicopter ($48 billion), the V-22 "Osprey" tilt-rotor aircraft ($46 billion) and the Trident II D-5 nuclear-tipped missile ($38 billion) are all fully funded in this year's Pentagon budget, while U.S. troops suffer from shortages of body armor and pick axes.

While the military is moving quickly to resolve shortages in body armor and front-line Humvees -- acting Secretary of the Army R.L. Brownlee has indicated that cost is no object in solving the "urgent" demand for helicopter defensive systems -- this shocking state of affairs is largely the result of the continued misallocation of resources by the Pentagon, which persists in funding the priorities of the past at the expense of the needs of the present and preparing for the challenges of the future. Such shortages will continue as long as the Pentagon retains its outdated focus on its Cold War mission, rather than the operations that constitute the military's actual combat requirements.