Any spending reductions on the KC-46A refueling tanker would force the Air Force to renegotiate the contract with manufacturer Boeing [BA], a move that would cause cost to rise, top Pentagon acquisition officials warned yesterday.
The officials said it is too early to determine how budget sequestration would affect the KC-46A aerial refueler because a possible cut of an additional $500 billion in defense spending over the next decade would require the Air Force to reshuffle program funding.
The remarks came in a jointly prepared statement during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee’s Sea Power & Projection Forces panel by David Van Buren, the Air Force’s acquisition executive; Shay Assad, the Pentagon’s director of pricing; Brig. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the program executive officer for the KC-46A; and Maj. Gen. Bruce Litchfield, a senior officer at Air Force Materiel Command.
“Deep cuts to the KC-46 would gravely impact the program and any cuts will require renegotiation of the contract, which would forgo the pricing achieved under competitive pressure,” their statement said.
“Any reduction imposed by sequestration rules would adversely impact the Air Force’s ability to perform its missions,” they said. “At this point, however, it is too early to determine the specific impacts to aerial refueling programs because such cuts would require the Air Force to rebalance its entire portfolio of programs.”
The Pentagon is facing more than $450 billion in cuts over the next decade under the Budget Control Act of 2011 as the country tries to rein in deficit spending, but could be slapped with an additional automatic cut of $500 billion over the next decade if a so-called congressional “super committee” fails to come up with a plan to reduce federal spending across the board by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years.
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction has until Nov. 23 to approve a plan or the sequestration measure will kick in, a scenario Pentagon officials have characterized as potentially devastating to the military and national security.
The Air Force has identified the KC-46A as a top priority, and keeping it fully funded “under sequestration would necessarily be at the expense of other programs,” they said.
The Pentagon in February awarded Boeing an initial $3.5-billion contract for delivery of the first 18 KC-46As by 2017, with the total program for 179 planes valued at upwards of $30 billion.
The KC-46A is designated to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of KC-135s and KC-10s. In their testimony, the four officials said keeping the new program on track is critical to curtailing rising sustainment costs. The two legacy tankers are projected to be flying until 2040. By then, the KC-135s will be on average more than 80 years old, while the KC10s will have been in service for 54 years, they said.
“Given the planned service life of both the KC-135 and KC-10 aircraft, the expected decrease in parts availability over the next 30 years, and the costs of sustaining the aging weapon systems, it is imperative for the Air Force to bring the KC-46 on-line and begin replacing the KC-135 fleet.”
The Air Force plans to conduct a “teardown study” on three retired KC-135s in fiscal 2015 to identify any structural integrity or corrosion issues and apply it to better sustaining the fleet and avoiding the risk of having to ground some of all of the planes, the statement said.