Pentagon budget writers in the House want to spare the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program from major changes, proposing only modest cuts to the program and including no commentary on it in its closely-read report on the defense budget.
The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) is poised to approve a fiscal year 2013 defense appropriations bill today that heeds the Pentagon’s request to buy 29 F-35s from Lockheed Martin [LMT]. The HAC Defense subcommittee (HAC-D) last week approved legislation that pares the Pentagon’s $8.9 billion F-35 request slightly, trimming $528.4 million in procurement monies and $16.8 million in research funding.
The HAC-D’s newly released report on the bill, notably, includes no section specifically on the F-35. House aides said that while lawmakers continue to watch over the weapons program–the Pentagon’s largest–they can make few changes now considering the restructuring the Pentagon itself has initiated.
The FY ’13 budget the Pentagon sent Congress in February calls for reducing the number of F-35s it purchases until research and development issues are better resolved in testing, so it doesn’t have to modify too many aircraft already built. The Pentagon’s budget request calls for cutting $15.1 billion in previously planned F-35 spending by delaying the purchase of 179 planes over the next five years.
HAC-D Chairman C.W. “Bill” Young (R-Calif.) has consistently told reporters in recent months that the F-35 is vital for the military.
Young told Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at the HAC-D’s Feb. 16 hearing on the defense budget that the F-35 is “something that’s extremely important to this country.”
“The Joint Strike Fighter seems to be our primary fighter now, where the F-22 did not deliver everything we thought it would,” Young said at the time. “We’re buying some additional F-18s, but that doesn’t compare to the Joint Strike Fighter.”
The HAC-D’s report, released yesterday, details small cuts to the Pentagon’s F-35 funding request , including procurement reductions of $41.7 million for the Navy variant, $163.1 million for the Marine Corps version, and $173.3 million for the Air Force aircraft. The bill also proposes taking $32.6 million from advanced-procurement for future Navy variants and $117.8 million for modifications of Air Force versions.
The HAC-D report cites varied reasons for the procurement cuts, including excess funding, contract delays, and engine cost growth for the Marine Corps version.
The HAC-D acknowledges the strike-fighter shortfall facing the Navy as the Pentagon waits for the F-35 to be ready for increased production. It thus calls for adding $605 million to the Pentagon’s request for buying 11 more of Boeing’s [BA] F/A–18E/F Super Hornets.
The panel notes the Navy’s service-life extension programs for legacy F-18 Hornets is expected to add roughly 1,400 flight hours per aircraft at a cost of approximately $25 million each. A new Super Hornet, it adds, costs in the range of $55 million and has an expected service life of 9,000 flight hours.
“When comparing the two options, a new aircraft would provide six times the service life at just twice the cost,” the HAC-D report says. “While it is not reasonable to close the entire strike fighter shortfall gap with new aircraft, a small quantity of new aircraft is an attractive alternative, especially considering the additional flight hours gained.”
The panel further calls for adding $45 million in advance-procurement monies to the Pentagon’s budget request for materials to buy 15 more EA-18G Growlers next year, in FY ’14.
The House, meanwhile, prepared to begin debating the FY ’13 defense authorization bill last night. That policy-setting bill would require the Air Force and Navy to establish initial operational capability (IOC) dates for the three F-35 variants by the end of this year.