ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — The Congress and the Army are working on a plan to allocate $25 million a year starting in fiscal 2014 to field the service’s networked communications packages to brigade combat teams, according to a top Army modernization official.

The packages, dubbed capability sets, will be deployed for the first time in October and have not appeared in previous budgets.

Brig. Gen. Daniel Hughes, who oversees the integration of the service’s network and modernization process, told Defense News that the Army has taken several steps to more deeply embed the service’s rapid modernization process into the institutional Army, as well as in the annual budget.

For example, the omnibus reprogramming request sent to Congress on June 26, in which the Army asked for roughly $140 million to be redirected toward the integration of new communications systems on combat vehicles, “was a shock to the system,” Hughes said. He added that while “we really didn’t want to do that, obviously it was the only way to get money,” since the service is planning on deploying capability sets to three brigade combat teams in October.Click here to read more

Pfc. Erick Montoya, A paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, patrols through an alfalfa field June 14, 2012, southern Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. Behind him are other paratroopers as well as partnered Afghan soldiers with the Afghan National Army’s 3rd Brigade, 203rd Corps. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod, RC-East PAO) Photo by Combat Correspondent

Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod