Congressional Intervention

Nearly 140 members of Congress have signed a May 6 letter to Army Secretary John McHugh, urging him to reconsider the service's plans to cease buying Abrams tanks for three years.

“The cost of shutdown and restart of Abrams tank production appears to be more than the cost of continued limited production,” the letter states.

The lawmakers recommend that the Army purchase tanks at the rate of 70 per year between 2013 and 2016 to sustain the defense industrial base. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), whose district is adjacent to the Lima, OH, plant where the Abrams is produced, did not sign the letter, though his office has said he planned on asking McHugh to reexamine the issue.

General Dynamics Land Systems, the contractor for the Abrams, has been lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill to change the Army's strategy for several months, saying a three-year shutdown is a threat to the defense industrial base.

While the name of Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-OH), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, does not appear on the letter, he recently advocated keeping the Abrams production line open during a May 5 speech at the Heritage Foundation.

“Shutting down production then restarting at a later date costs more than just keeping the lines open,” he said. “This is a no-brainer.”

But the Army is arguing just the opposite, however, saying that shutting the line down for three years and restarting it again would cost only $800 million, as opposed to the $1.3 billion contractor General Dynamics Land Systems has proposed to keep it operating. But the service is revisiting its figures and has commissioned the Institute for Defense Analyses for a study that will deliver interim results in July and be completed in December.