From: bergman@AFPAN.PA.AF.MIL (CMSgt Mike Bergman)
Newsgroups: soc.veterans
Subject: Army News Service 10/15/92
Date: 15 Oct 92 18:44:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: afnews.9210151844.AA12760
Organization: Hq Air Force News Agency/SCC


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Less-than-lethal weapons to offer battlefield flexibility

     WASHINGTON (ARNEWS) -- Kinder, gentler weaponry?
     That's what's evolving at the Army's Armament Research, 
Development and Engineering Center, for use on the battlefield of 
the future.
     More than a dozen "less-than-lethal" munition technologies 
are being studied at ARDEC, located at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., as 
part of the Low Collateral Damage Munitions program. Its goal is 
to produce weapons that effectively disable, dazzle or 
incapacitate the enemy and his equipment -- all the while 
minimizing collateral damage.
     Proponents of the effort say the program will minimize loss 
of life in future conflicts, increase tactical flexibility and 
enhance battlefield performance.


Army volunteers to see more reimbursements

     ALEXANDRIA, Va. (ARNEWS) -- Volunteers working in support of 
certain Army programs can now be reimbursed for more of the work-
related expenses they may incur, according to U.S. Army Community 
& Family Support Center officials.
     Expenses related to volunteers' work supporting Army 
Community Service, unit family support groups or installation 
mayoral programs can now be reimbursed for mileage expenses, 
dining facility surcharges, telephone bills and newsletter 
reproduction.
     Previously, volunteers were authorized reimbursement for 
training travel and child care only.
     The revisions are outlined in interim changes to AR 215-1, 
Morale, Welfare and Recreation; and AR 608-1, Army Community 
Service (ACS) Program.
              (From a CFSC release.)

Army secretary reflects on dynamics of change

     WASHINGTON (ARNEWS) -- The Army of the 1990s faces complex, 
difficult challenges while striving to maintain readiness and mis-
sion capability.
     So noted Secretary of the Army Michael P.W. Stone Oct. 8 in 
an end-of-fiscal-year press conference at the Pentagon.
     Referring to the sweeping changes in the nation's strategic 
environment and to the resources needed for maintaining the 
military, Stone cast his remarks as a sort of "state of the Army" 
report.
     He focused on such matters as the declining Army budget, the 
state of procurement policy and programs, the future role of 
research/development/testing/evaluation, aircraft modernization, 
and reshaping of the force.
     Stone summarized the service's budgetary concerns by saying 
that the $63 billion annual budget planned a year ago has been 
approximated by recent congressional funding. Even so, "resource 
allocation has some very big questions attached to it," he said. 
"For example, things like sealift. How much of our reduced budget 
do we continue to put against the sealift requirement?  How much 
do we continue to push against people requirements?"
     Over the years, a progressively reduced level of funding for 
several major procurement programs has had logic behind it, the 
secretary said. He was referring to the M1 Abrams tank, the 
Patriot anti-missile system, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the UH-
60, AH-64 and Comanche helicopters, the Multiple-Launch Rocket 
System, the Advanced Field Artillery System, and the Future 
Armored Resupply Vehicle.
     Although the Army's helicopter fleet needs upgrading and the 
M1 tank needs, and is getting, an infusion of new technology in 
coming years, "I'm comfortable with the decline in procurement 
allocation," Stone said. But he predicted that by the end of the 
decade, the Army will experience an upturn in procurements. A 
sustained program for modernizing the several thousand Army 
helicopters is particularly necessary, he stressed.
     Regardless of the size of the budget through the 1990s, ac-
cording to Stone, the Army plans "a healthy commitment to the R&D 
part of our budget -- developing new technology, new knowledge and 
new systems."
     The "dynamics of change" now confronting the Army's active 
and reserve components has as much to do with peacetime engagement 
as it does with the Army's traditional mission on the battlefield, 
Stone pointed out. Here he cited the civil-disaster response of 
the Corps of Engineers and the pioneering medical work at the 
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. The secretary also 
emphasized that the Army of today and tomorrow has the perennial 
mission of taking part in United Nations peacekeeping operations.
     Referring to the active-component/reserve-component mix, 
Stone said that the RC force reduction of 39,000 granted by 
Congress for this fiscal year was about one-third less than what 
the Army had sought. "Eighty percent of the units that are af-
fected by our planned reductions were scheduled for -- and their 
mission was -- support of Cold War operations, meaning primarily 
in the European theater. Those missions have gone away. So now 
we're being asked to keep a disproportional ... element of 
strength in the total armed forces."  Paying for the disproportion 
-- some $1 billion for fiscal 1993 -- comes at a significant cost, 
he said.
     On the matter of force reduction in Europe, Stone explained 
that besides the complexity and cost of transferring numerous 
soldiers and families, "we're now faced with what I call the 
mother of all house-cleanings over there."  Commanders and manag-
ers are being called upon to decide what to do with all the equip-
ment, facilities and ammunition. "These are very difficult 
management decisions," he said. "In Germany about 200 bases are 
being closed and handed back to Germany."
     Through it all, Stone and his staff are seeking a balancing 
of resource allocations that will continue to reflect the national 
interest and the multiplicity of Army missions. Meantime, the 
secretary said, the Army continues to take care of its people.


Stone speaks on changed Army role

     WASHINGTON (ARNEWS) -- Army Secretary Michael P.W. Stone 
cautioned against a worldwide withdrawal of U.S. troops in his 
keynote address to members of the Association of the U.S. Army on 
Oct. 12.
     He said that 10 years ago he could not have imagined some of 
the changes that have taken place and affected the role of the 
military.
     "But not all changes have been positive," he said.
     Quoting former President Nixon -- calling him the 'Cold War 
Warrior' -- Stone said, "It is true that the communists lost the 
Cold War. It is not true that the free world has won it."
     The nation has taken pride in its Army for the past 217 
years, Stone said, but in the past several years "a new dimension 
and depth to that appreciation" has come.
     Although the Cold War has ended, ethnic strife has grown and 
weaponry is readily available. "We face a world where many of the 
nations are more parochial, more suspicious, and more 
contentious," he said, adding that they are also increasingly 
well-armed.
     Equip a Scud missile with a relative simple technological 
change, global positioning satellite receivers, and you have a far 
more lethal threat than was faced in Desert Storm, he said.
     Much of the instability that precipitated World War II was 
the result of the United States' withdrawal from the world during 
the '20s and '30s, according to Stone.
     "Today we must remain engaged," Stone said, neither turning 
completely inward as was done after the world wars, nor focusing 
to the exclusion of the domestic economy and social issues on the 
international arena. "We must maintain a balance that contains 
elements of both positions."
     Quoting Alexander Hamilton, Stone said "No government could 
give tranquility and happiness at home which did not possess 
sufficient stability and strength to make us respectable abroad."
     "Today, like any day, there are some 15,000 Americans 
deployed worldwide," not including those in Germany and Korea, 
according to Stone. The military is currently providing a variety 
of humanitarian assistance missions and supporting six U.N 
peacekeeping missions.
     In only a few years, Stone said, units returning from Europe 
will be fully integrated in the nation's contingency plan. That 
plan includes the National Guard and Reserve, which will have new 
missions based on that plan.
     "We are no longer a Cold War Army. We are a smaller power 
projection force, more deployable and just as capable as the Army 
of Desert Storm," Stone said.
     (Reprinted from the Pentagram.)


Less-than-lethal weapons to offer battlefield flexibility

     WASHINGTON (ARNEWS) -- Kinder, gentler weaponry?
     That's what's evolving at the Army's Armament Research, 
Development and Engineering Center, for use on the battlefield of 
the future.
     More than a dozen "less-than-lethal" munition technologies 
are being studied at ARDEC, located at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., as 
part of the Low Collateral Damage Munitions program. Its goal is 
to produce weapons that effectively disable, dazzle or 
incapacitate the enemy and his equipment -- all the while 
minimizing collateral damage.
     The programs include research on --
     -- light-emitting optical munitions that disrupt enemy 
sensors;
     -- effects of high power microwave projectiles on military 
hardware;
     -- acoustic beam weapons and acoustic "bullets;"
     -- pulsed chemical lasers which produce controlled blast 
waves with hot, high-pressured plasma bursts;
     -- non-lethal anti-materiel chemicals; vehicular envelopment 
and riot control agents; and
     -- alternative methods for launch and delivery of these 
weapons, such as missile warheads, small arms, mortars or mines.
     Proponents of the effort say the program will minimize loss 
of life in future conflicts, increase tactical flexibility and 
enhance battlefield performance.


Army volunteers to see more reimbursements

     ALEXANDRIA, Va. (ARNEWS) -- Volunteers working in support of 
certain Army programs can now be reimbursed for more of the work-
related expenses they may incur, according to U.S. Army Community 
& Family Support Center officials.
     Expenses related to volunteers' work supporting Army 
Community Service, unit family support groups or installation 
mayoral programs can now be reimbursed for mileage expenses, 
dining facility surcharges, telephone bills and newsletter 
reproduction.
     Previously, volunteers were authorized reimbursement for 
training travel and child care only.
     The revisions are outlined in interim changes to AR 215-1, 
Morale, Welfare and Recreation; and AR 608-1, Army Community 
Service (ACS) Program.
     Funds to cover the reimbursed costs must be budgeted and 
approved by the installation commander, CFSC officials noted.
     Pending legislation will expand current law to allow 
volunteers in any DoD-recognized activity to be reimbursed for 
their incidental expenses, officials said.
              (From a CFSC release.)

-- 
         
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Newsgroups: soc.veterans