A top lawmaker is welcoming the Pentagon’s move to scale back its proposal for politically unpopular cuts to the Air National Guard and keep two dozen more transport aircraft than previously planned.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he reviewed an alternate proposal for the fiscal year 2013 to 2017 defense budget crafted by the nation’s governors and agreed with them that cuts the Pentagon proposed to the Air National Guard back in February were too big.

“After further review, the Air Force has determined that we can mitigate impacts to affected states (by the proposed February cuts) with a $400 million package that would maintain an additional 24 C-130 aircraft in the Air National Guard,” Panetta said in April 23 letters to lawmakers. “We recognize the important role that these lift aircraft play in our support to civil authorities and states—particularly in the event of natural disasters.”

His letter came just days before the House Armed Service Committee (HASC) prepares to tweak the FY ’13 Pentagon proposal, a process that starts with subcommittee markup sessions tomorrow. Lawmakers, particularly members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), have expressed concerns about the proposed cuts to Air National Guard aircraft and personnel.

“The 24 additional C-130s that Secretary Panetta is recommending for the Air National Guard represent progress toward restoring some proportionality to the Air Force’s proposed budget,” SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said yesterday about the Lockheed Martin [LMT] aircraft. He noted Panetta also wants to reverse more than 40 percent of previously proposed Air National Guard personnel reductions.

“I will continue to look for mitigating steps in order to achieve proportionality in any cuts to the Air Force,” Levin added.

After politicians blasted the Air National Guard cuts in the budget the Pentagon released in February, which included retiring hundreds of aircraft over the next five years, Panetta tasked Air Force leaders with working with the Council of Governors, made up of some governors of U.S. states, to find an alternate plan for the Guard’s force structure. The cuts came as the Pentagon worked to make $487 billion in cuts to its planned 10-year spending, as dictated by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

The governors’ council had proposed a more wide-reaching rewrite of the proposed Air National Guard budget that included, among other things, restoring 72 F-16 fighter jets.

Panetta, in his Feb. 13 letter, said he “strongly” urges Levin to consider the new plan for $400 million in Air National Guard spending, which he said Pentagon officials “believe sustains our national defense requirements and is responsive to concerns raised by the Council of Governors.”

Panetta did not indicate where the Air Force’s proposed budget would be cut to make room for the $400 million.

Panetta also sent letters to HASC leaders, National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Craig McKinley, and the Council of Governors co-chairs: Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R), Wash. Gov. Christine Gregoire (D).

HASC spokesman Claude Chafin said the House panel is “examining details” of Panetta’s alternate Air National Guard plan.