The Air Force aired its objections yesterday to changes lawmakers are trying to make to its plans for its B-1, B-2, and B-52 bombers in the current fiscal year’s budget.
Air Force Maj. Gen. John Hesterman, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and requirements, joined Navy and Marine Corps officials at a House subcommittee hearing meant to highlight the need for investing in seapower and projection forces. The hearing, like a series of other ones by the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), came as a congressional deficit-cutting committee weighs cuts to the defense budget on top of the roughly $450 billion reduction to the Pentagon’s 10-year spending plans already made by the Budget Control Act of 2011.
While much of the hearing was spent discussing harm the services predict would result from additional long-term budget cuts, Hesterman enumerated specific concerns about proposals for Air Force bombers in pending budget bills for fiscal year 2012, which began Oct. 1.
Hesterman wrote, in written testimony submitted to the HASC’s Seapower and Project Forces subcommittee, that his service “strongly objects” to congressional attempts to impose B-1 force-structure restrictions, which related to its plans to retire six B-1 bombers.
The service wants to mothball six of the bombers to fund avionics upgrades to the rest of the B-1 feet.
“These modifications are essential to correct safety-of-flight discrepancies and without which the B-1 fleet system will begin to experience grounding issues which will severely undermine its deterrence and power projection capabilities,” Hesterman wrote. “This is strictly a programming action, taking acceptable (moderate) risk to the overall bomber capability requirement.”
He argued the “overall health and viability of the B-1 fleet will be significantly enhanced by the platform modification and sustainment funding made possible with the retirement of six B-1 bombers” as proposed in the Pentagon’s FY ’12 budget request.
However, lawmakers aren’t completely sold on the Air Force’s plan. The House-passed FY ’12 defense authorization bill, which sets Pentagon policy, would require the service to maintain a combat-coded inventory of 36 B-1 bomber aircraft.
“The committee is concerned that retirement of any B-1 aircraft is premature prior to a replacement long-range strike bomber aircraft reaching initial operational capability status,” the HASC said in its report on the bill. The Senate Authorization Committee’s version of the FY ’12 authorization bill, which the full Senate has not debated, requests more information on the B-1 retirement plan.
The Air Force also objects, in Hesterman’s testimony, to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s (SAC) move in its FY ’12 defense appropriations bill to cut $22 million in research and development funding for the B-2 bomber’s Defensive Management System (DMS), which recently was approved to begin technology development.
“This reduction will prevent the Air Force from pursuing development acceleration initiatives that can potentially reduce the overall program schedule by three years, and save half a billion dollars,” Hesterman wrote. The full Senate has not yet taken up the SAC’s defense legislation, which sets the Pentagon’s budget.
Meanwhile, the House-passed FY ’12 defense appropriations bill, to the Air Force’s chagrin, would reduce the Pentagon’s proposed B-2 modernization funding by $10.3 million, or roughly one-quarter of the $41.315 million requested.
Hesterman wrote the House B-2 cut would “prevent installation of the final two radar antenna kits as part of the Radar Modernization Program, prevent training system upgrades, and eliminate the ability to perform low cost low observable improvements to the B-2 aircraft.”
He further objected to the SAC’s move to rescind FY ’11 funding totaling $33 million for B-2 modifications and $22.579 million for the B-2 MultiDisplay Unit.
The Air Force also takes exception with the SAC’s proposed $16 million cut to the Pentagon’s FY ’12 research and development request for B-52 bombers. The panel wants to cut funding for upgrades to the aging bomber’s internal weapons bays.
Hesterman argued in his testimony that the weapons-bay enhancements are integral to upgrade efforts to keep the B-52s in use through 2040.
“This ($16 million) reduction will prevent timely procurement of weapon flight test articles to support FY14 testing thus delaying integration of Joint Direct Attack Munition, Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile, and Miniature Air Launched Decoy onto the B-52,” he wrote.