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Scott Davis: U.S. Army Vehicle Contracts May Escape Federal Budget Cuts

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Scott Davis

The U.S. Army said its ground vehicle procurement programs may escape mandatory budget cuts taking effect in January since most of the programs are still in the developmental phase, Reuters reported Tuesday.

“We’re sort of in a transitional phase right now. We don’t have a large production stream,” program executive officer for the Army’s ground combat systems Scott Davis told reporters at the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference.

Davis said most of the Army’s ground vehicle programs were not multi-year agreements or large-scale production contracts, limiting the impact of across-the-board cuts.

Arms industry executives and military leaders have been pressing Congress to avert or delay the proposed $1.2 trillion budget cuts planned for the next 10 years until after the November elections.

Last month, the White House said defense program budgets will get a 9.4 percent or $54.7 billion cut in fiscal year 2013, including $15.3 billion from Pentagon procurement accounts. These cuts are on top of the $487 billion reduction to proposed military spending set for the next decade.

President Barack Obama said Monday that the budget cuts set for next year “will not happen,” but some Republicans have said the president had not presented a plan to avoid these cuts.

Davis said some reductions might be “manageable” given the current state of several big programs, while others could be avoided.

“I think it’s manageable inside our portfolio from the perspective that we’re in developmental efforts and we may be able to accommodate with adjustments,” Davis told reporters.

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