After years of lobbying and stalled legislative efforts, appropriators set aside funds in the newly enacted $1.5 trillion omnibus spending package to equip aging military vehicles with technology that experts say will make them safer.
The law includes $183 million for the Army to install anti-lock brake systems with electronic stability control kits on some of the service’s Humvees, top-heavy vehicles widely used by the Army that are prone to rollovers and have been linked to dozens of accidental deaths.
The funding, which vastly exceeds the Army’s budget request of $10.5 million for the kits, will be used to retrofit as many aging Humvees as possible during this fiscal year. But it will likely not be enough to upgrade the Army’s entire fleet of 5,421 legacy vehicles, House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee Chairman Donald Norcross, D-N.J., said in an interview.
