In June 2020, the Air Force’s Female Fitment Program Office awarded its first contract for improved female body armor. Progress to outfit women in the military has been slow. The Army did not immediately respond to requests for clarification on what funds in its $5.5 billion 2022 budget request would go towards small-stature body armor. Where the US Army’s Cut List and Wish List Overlap ‘A Lot of Risk’ in Army’s Proposed 2022 Budget, Service Leaders Say No Turning Back? First Woman Makes Army’s Elite 75th Ranger Regiment, Big Step For Women in Combat In 2021, the Pentagon requested an increase to $234.6 million for body armor and a decrease to $127.2 million for PPE.Īdvocates Hope First Female Army Secretary Brings Change Those totals were expected to change significantly in 2020, to $176.8 million for body armor and $180.3 million for other PPE. In 2019, the Army spent $245.4 million in total on body armor and $107.9 million for individual equipment.
But according to last year’s Pentagon request, funding for body armor has fluctuated wildly. The Biden administration's initial budget request documents do not show line item listings for body armor and “individual equipment” funds, the two accounts which cover things like helmets, bullet-proof plates and other gear. In the president’s budget request, the Army included $155 million in 2022 for better fitting body armor and extreme cold weather gear specifically for future Arctic operations, Defense News reported. John Murray, who leads Army Futures Command. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., asked DOD leaders if President Joe Biden’s budget request for fiscal year 2022 included enough funds to “properly study and then procure” PPE for female soldiers and Marines. That request for extra funds to “accelerate” the modernization and fielding of the personal protective equipment-submitted as part of the Army’s “unfunded mandates” wish list of items left out of the president’s defense spending request-has prompted some lawmakers to question whether the Pentagon indeed had given body armor for women the right amount of money or attention they believe it still requires.ĭuring a House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces hearing Monday on Army and Marine Corps ground systems modernization programs, Rep. On Monday, DOD leaders told Congress they now have the designs and enough money to start producing the gear-but the Army has requested another $81 million to accelerate the program by three years. Three years ago, female veterans in Congress introduced a bill to force the issue. Fielding better-fitting body armor for female and small-statured service members has long been on the Defense Department’s to-do list.
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