MAKE ROOM FOR MODERNIZATION


Defense Articles (EDA) program, which transfers previously used, excess equip- ment from U.S. units to America’s foreign partners and allies. Te excess equipment that makes its way into USASAC’s FMS stream saves millions of taxpayer dollars.


Te EDA program is a natural comple- ment to the Army’s modernization and divestiture goals, Lem Williams, chief of the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command’s Mission Support Division, G3, who manages the EDA program said, as it is able to scoop up excess equipment at MDRS locations and transfer it to partner nations before the Army incurs massive transportation, storage and disposal bills. In the past, when equipment was declared excess, it was transported to a depot where it would be stored for years, or decades in some cases, awaiting demilitarization or destruction. According to Williams, these costs were astronomical.


“And that bill doesn’t account for the addi- tional costs of prepping equipment for storage—draining fluids and disposing of hazardous materials,” Williams said. “It’s hard for most people to truly realize the full scope of these types of expenses, but it literally takes tens of thousands of dollars for some types of equipment, particularly the larger ones. So often the decision to demilitarize a family of vehicles comes with a multimillion-dollar bill.” Tat is a tremendous amount of money that could be spent elsewhere on training and equip- ping tomorrow’s Army.


For over a decade, Williams has seen billions of dollars in Army equipment transfer from U.S. to partner nation prop- erty books. But current world events, and the fact that America’s military readiness hinges on the speed and success of ongoing modernization and divestment operations, makes this a pivotal moment in history and a challenge for the EDA program.


64 Army AL&T Magazine Fall 2024


WHAT’S WHAT?


MDRS: Modernization Displacement and Repair Sites—supports expe- diated redistribution and divestiture of equipment from Army units. MDRS-Cavazos, the Army’s first MDRS facility, received and processed more than 6,700 pieces of equipment in its first four months of opera- tion beginning in November 2020, with 4,000 items alone coming from the 1st Cavalry Division.


R2E: Rapid Removal of Excess—allows units to turn in excess equip- ment at the MDRS and Logistics Readiness Centers with or without disposition instructions. COMPO 1 transfers in “as is” condition and COMPO 2 and 3 in 10/20 condition. During the pilot of R2E at Fort Liberty and Fort Stewart in early 2024, units processed more than 37,000 pieces of equipment for turn-in over an eight-week window. Since early June, units on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, have turned in over 14,000 pieces of equipment, totaling $150 million.


SAS(2): USASAC’s Security Assistance Storage Sites—Where equip- ment is temporarily stored as it cascades out of Army units awaiting transportation to Allied Partners. Transportation storage and demil- itarization cost avoidance is saving the Army millions of dollars and valuable man-hours.


READY TO ROLL


U.S. Army Humvees staged at Mihail Kogalniceeanu, a U.S. Base in Romania, are being transferred to Moldova as part of an EDA FMS case. (Photos courtesy of USASAC)


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