The Air Force could be forced to buy two fewer F-35As in the next lot of purchases if a full-year continuing resolution (CR) and sequestration go into effect, according to a top service official.

Acting Air Force Under Secretary Jamie Morin said yesterday the service would also lose ground on F-35 software development, which he termed as critical for the aircraft. Morin said he couldn’t be specific on which software capabilities would be delayed, as those would be “prioritization decisions” that would be made at a program level over time.

“This is a program we’re going to fight to keep on track because stability, from the government side, is important to allowing a critical modernization plan to succeed,” Morin told reporters at the Pentagon during a briefing on what the Air Force is doing to prepare for possible sequestration-related budget cuts scheduled to go into effect March 1. “But in a sequestration and a full-year CR environment, our ability to keep it 100 percent on track is just not there.”

Sequestration is $1.2 trillion in decade-long defense cuts divided between defense and non-defense spending poised to take effect March 1 if the White House and Congress don’t strike a deal to avert or delay it (Defense Daily, Feb. 5).

The Air Force is supposed to buy 1,763 F-35As, the conventional variant of the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, which is also being purchased by the Navy and Marine Corps, but in different variants. Final delivery is scheduled for the late 2020s. The F-35 is developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT].

Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) is planning on protecting “first line of defense” and “current generation capabilities” if it is forced to deal with limited sustainment resources and limited contract dollars forced by sequestration, according to Morin. He added, specifically, the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) missile warning constellation would be protected. Morin said AFSPC will “take greater risk, reduce expenditures” on older-generation capabilities, naming “various ground radar stations” dating back to the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

“You can’t prioritize everything,” Morin said. “They prioritized the newer and…first line of defense capabilities.”

Morin wouldn’t specifically say if the Air Force would be forced to break the KC-46 next-generation aerial refueling tanker contract if hit with a full-year CR and sequestration, but said “if we have both sequestration and a full-year CR, without some extraordinary authorities, we’re in a challenging position.” Morin did say for sure that if contracts are broken due to full-year CR and sequestration, the potential costs from renegotiating terminated contracts would outweigh potential taxpayer savings from reduced defense budgets. Boeing [BA] is developing the KC-46.

“We don’t know what would happen if we had to re-open the tanker contract, but I can’t tell you it wouldn’t cost us $1 billion,” Morin said. “It might. It hopefully wouldn’t, but it might. That’s a big chunk of our sequester savings right now.”

Morin said that unless the Air Force gets “substantial reprogramming flexibility” in the event of sequestration, the KC-46 and F-35 programs would be “damaged.”

The C-5 re-engining program would also be at risk due to sequestration and a full-year CR, according to Morin, who also said that most of these impacts are avoidable if Congress de-triggers sequestration and gets the Defense Department an appropriations bill. DoD is currently running on a CR from fiscal year 2012. A full-year CR would fund FY ’13 at FY ’12 levels.

Morin also said the Air Force could be hurt from re-negotiating, not only its big ticket items, but its smaller programs as well.

“For someone to tell you there would be no impact from negotiating all these short-term things over and over again, they’d be out of their mind,” Morin said. “The impact is clearly there. It’s just impossible to quantify because it’s thousands and thousands of actions.”

Morin said the Air Force is taking numerous steps to prepare for sequestration in the short-term. Morin said the service is deferring all but emergency facility sustainment, restoration and modernization projects, which he said includes runway, taxiway and lighting system repairs, sewer line fixes and energy efficiency improvements.