According to Inside Defense, the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee has recommended terminating the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program, lawmakers said today.
The Senate panel, in a hearing to consider the Pentagon’s FY-12 budget request, outlined steps it has taken to cut $26 billion from the Defense Department’s spending proposal in order to comply with discretionary spending caps set forth last month in the Budget Control Act.
These include reductions to more than 600 specific projects across the military’s budget.
Most of the cuts reflect program terminations, schedule delays, or corrections to what the subcommittee chairman called “poor fiscal discipline.”
“While some of the cuts will be considered tough, we believe they are not only fair, but prudent in this fiscal budget environment,” Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the defense subcommittee.
Inouye said the subcommittee recommends terminating JLTV “due to excessive cost growth and constantly changing requirements.”
In addition, the lawmaker said, “the committee believes that alternatives exist today to meet the Army and Marine Corps requirements to recapitalise and competitively upgrade the humvee fleet, and supports funding for those programs.”
Inouye said the committee absorbed some of the $10 billion the Defense Department has sought to reprogram in FY-11 while constructing its FY-12 Pentagon recommendation of $513 billion.
The Senate panel also cut $1.2 billion from the Joint Strike Fighter program.
In addition, the panel decided not to fund the Navy’s request for an additional Mobile Landing Platform, Inouye said. –– Jason Sherman with additional reporting by Gabe Starosta.