By Emelie Rutherford
Senate defense appropriators have staked out different stances than their House counterparts on troubled aircraft efforts, including calling for greater funding reductions to the presidential helicopter and Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) while advocating less substantial changes to the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program.
Thus, funding for these programs are likely fair game for future House-Senate negotiators on the fiscal year 2009 defense appropriations bill, which is currently stalled in Congress.
The version of the legislation the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee (SAC-D) marked up last Wednesday slashes more money from the troubled VH-71 presidential helicopter program than does the corresponding bill the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D) finalized July 30, according to the reports accompanying both bills. Defense Daily obtained both reports, which have not been publicly released.
The SAC-D wants to slash the entire $312.8 million the Navy requested in research and development funds for the presidential helicopter effort’s Increment 2, and then transfer $42 million of those monies to advance-procurement of Increment 1 aircraft. The HAC-D, by comparison, is calling for trimming the $312.8 million request for Increment 2 by $212.8 million, thus still keeping $100 million in funding.
The VH-71 program is divided into two increments, and the less-technologically-advanced Increment 1 aircraft is scheduled to reach initial operational capability (IOC) in 2010. The Navy last December put a stop-work order on the troubled Increment 2 choppers, which had a 2017 IOC date.
The SAC-D frowns on the Bush administration’s budget request to restart work on Increment 2 in the spring of 2009 after the certification of a so-called Nunn-McCurdy cost breach.
“The Committee does not believe that continued investment in development of Increment 2, which today is estimated to cost not less than $4,700,000,000, is warranted,” the subcommittee’s report states. “The Increment 1 aircraft, with significant advantages over the legacy fleet, will be available in the near term.”
The report adds that there is no assurance that cost growth in the program has been fully controlled, and that “sustaining a portion of the current aging aircraft fleet until Increment 2 assets become fully operational more than 10 years from now carries significant costs and risks.”
The SAC-D also calls for spending an added $20 million in procurement funds on reliability enhancements to existing, legacy presidential helicopters.
The Senate panel also wants to zero the administration’s procurement request for the Army’s troubled ARH. The Army notified Congress in July that the ARH effort experienced a Nunn-McCurdy cost breach, and is currently conducting a comprehensive review of the program. The service earlier this year requested $358.8 million for FY ’09 procurement of 28 aircraft, along with $80 million in advance-procurement monies.
“In light of the ongoing analysis of alternatives, the Committee recommends no funds for the procurement of additional ARH, and transfers $42,000,000 to accelerate the safety enhancement program for the remaining unit of the Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopter,” the SAC-D report says.
In July, the HAC-D wrote in its report that it supports the ARH program, yet it laments “continuing production delays and unit cost growth.” The House panel calls for cutting the administration’s request of $358.8 for 28 aircraft in FY ’09 down to $229 million for 15 ARHs, and trimming the advance-procurement total from $80 million down to $43.8 million.
For the two-service JCA effort, the SAC-D recommends funding the Army’s $264.1 million request for buying seven aircraft, while zeroing out the Air Force’s smaller JCA procurement request of $5.4 million and trimming its research and development request from $26.7 million down to $16.7 million.
The HAC-D, though, gives the Army funding for just four of the seven JCA sought (reducing requested procurement funding from $264.1 million to $151 million), while awarding the Air Force no JCA funding at all.
The Senate and House appropriations panels also take different approaches to the multi-service F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The SAC-D wants to cut funding for two production aircraft in FY ’09, dropping the total to 14, while the HAC-D is calling for restructuring the program and slashing procurement of four F-35s in FY ’09.
Both panels include money in their bills for funding the F-35 second-engine effort not supported by the Bush administration.
The HAC-D and SAC-D both call for adding funding to keep the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor production line going, adding advance-procurement funds for 20 aircraft and removing $147 million in requested monies for shutting down the line.
It was not clear yesterday when the full House and Senate appropriations committees will mark up the defense bills. HAC-D Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) last week was pessimistic about the FY ’09 defense appropriations bill passing before the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday continued debating the defense authorization bill, which has already passed the House.
As of yesterday afternoon Republicans had not agreed to a unanimous-consent agreement dictating which amendments will be considered on the floor. More than 200 amendments have been filed, but the bill’s managers want to limit the number voted on to assure speedy passage of the legislation. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said if the Senate does not pass the defense policy bill early this week, then it will not make it through the subsequent steps and pass in time before Congress expects to adjourn later this month.