‘HEMTT’ Cited by Bush: Truckload of Controversy

Vice President George Bush largely curbed his appetite for acronyms in Thursday night’s debate, but he let one slip that probably mystified most in the television audience--HEMTT.

The letters, pronounced “Hemit,” stand for heavy expanded mobility tactical truck, a 10-ton Army vehicle that has been the center of a small controversy for months. Bush cited the truck as an example of how he would cut the military budget, calling it an $850-million boondoggle that a “very powerful” member of Congress shoved down the Army’s throat.

In fact, Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, did force the Army to buy 4,737 more HEMTTs than it wanted, at a cost of more than $800 million. HEMTTs are built in Aspin’s home state of Wisconsin.

But canceling the program would not save any money, military and congressional officials agree. If the Army does not get the HEMTT, it will need a new generation of heavy truck that will surely cost more.

Congressional Meddling

If Bush was looking for an example of congressional meddling in the defense budget, he found a classic case. The story is replete with pork-barrel politics, former Capitol aides who whipped through the revolving door to lobby their former bosses and legislative “micromanagement” of military affairs.

But if Bush should propose to the Army that it do without the $800 million that is to be spent on HEMTT, he would run into a brick wall.

“The Army has made its intentions clear,” said Maj. Phil Soucy, an Army spokesman. “It’s a good truck--now they’ve gotten the axles fixed--but we don’t want any more.”

Soucy said the Army wanted a different type of truck rather than 4,737 more HEMTTs on top of the 8,538 it already had. The two types are not interchangeable, Soucy noted. The Army will go to Congress in the 1990s with a request for money for the new truck, he said.

The HEMTT, built by Oshkosh Truck Corp. in Aspin’s home state but not in his district, was plagued by quality and reliability problems early in its history, but the Army and the manufacturer now say they are solved.

Warren Nelson, an Aspin aide, said the Army never proposed canceling the truck program to save the $800 million. “The vice president is a bit behind the curve. . . . “ Nelson said. “He’s not really aware of what’s going on in the Pentagon.

“The issue was whether to stop the current system early and bring the 1990 system closer to the present,” Nelson said. “Bush just doesn’t understand that.”

Pet Project

Aspin supported the expanded HEMTT purchase to save some of the money the new truck would cost, Nelson said. The HEMTT, he added, could be adapted to meet a variety of current needs.

The truck also is a pet project of Rep. Bill Chappell Jr. (D-Fla.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense. Chappell has received campaign contributions from Oshkosh and remains close to former aide W. Leonard Killgore Jr., now a consultant to Oshkosh.

Another useful HEMTT friend is Rep. Marvin Leath (D-Tex.), who also has accepted Oshkosh largess in the form of campaign contributions and honorariums for speeches. He has been a dogged supporter of more trucks for the Army since he arrived in Washington in 1979.

“Poor old George doesn’t know any more about weapons systems than Mike (Dukakis) does,” Leath said. “If we hadn’t spent that money on HEMTT, the Army was going to spend more than that on something else.”

From the Army’s standpoint, Aspin delivered the ultimate insult out of pique over the Army’s initial resistance to the HEMTT. He wrote into law the requirement that the choice of contractor for the next Army heavy truck will be made by the Navy.

“The Navy is going to be the technical expert for the (truck),” said an aggravated Army officer. “That’s akin to us being the technical advisers for the next frigate.”