The House Armed Services Committee released a defense authorization bill that saves many of the programs the Defense Department wanted to cut, adds funding for ballistic missile defense and space-related research, and buys five additional EA-18G Growlers and an amphibious ship for the Navy – adding nearly $1.3 billion to military procurement and $252 million to research and development while slashing more than $1.4 billion from operations and maintenance accounts.

The bill sticks to the $521 billion cost cap included in the Bipartisan Budget Act from last year, but it massively reprioritizes funding compared to DoD’s request, much to the dismay of ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.).capitol

“While this mark provides significant support for our military, the men and women in uniform as well as their families, it also fails to make the difficult choices necessary to address to crushing financial constraints placed on this budget by Congress. This year, we had two options: we could have stepped up and made the difficult choices in regard to retiring aging weapons systems and platforms, authorized a [Base Realignment and Closure], or made changes to military compensation and benefits, or ended sequestration. We decided to do neither,” he said in a statement. “While it is not our role to accept the defense budget entirely as it is presented, it is also not our role to make significant changes that cause the Department of Defense harm based on parochial interest.”

Despite testimony from DoD and Air Force leaders about the need for painful cuts both this year and in the future if sequestration returns, HASC chose to ban money from being used to retire, prepare to retire or put in storage the U-2 spy planes;  to divest or transfer the KC-10 tankers; or to retire the A-10 close-air support planes unless the aircraft go into “type-1000 storage,” or “a near-flyaway condition” so they could quickly be recalled for use by either active or reserve components if needed.

“Chairman McKeon appreciates the decisive impact the A-10 has had over the last decade and a half of conflict. His proposal dictates that the A-10 not be retired unless placed in Type 1000 storage to facilitate its quick return to the force should resource trends improve,” explains a HASC fact sheet that accompanies the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act.

The bill also authorizes the Navy to enter into an incremental funding contract for a 12th LPD amphibious transport dock, LPD-28, so long as the contract with shipbuilding Huntington Ingalls Inc. [HII] notes that any payment “after fiscal year 2015 is subject to the availability of appropriations for that purpose for such fiscal year.” The bill then authorizes $800 million for FY ’15 for the ship, in addition to the $263 million in FY ’13 funding already appropriated by Congress but not yet spent by the Navy.

In total, HASC authorized $90.79 billion in military procurement, up from the $89.51 billion DoD requested.

The Army added $49 million to its MQ-1 Gray Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle program for extended range modifications, which was included in the Army’s unfunded priorities list. HASC added $50 million in Stryker modifications, which would modify a fourth Double-V Hull brigade, also on the list. The committee also added $210 million to a new Abrams upgrade program, $72 million to the existing M-88 Hercules recovery vehicle modification program, and $50 million each to buy Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles and Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles, all as part of an industrial base initiative.

The Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical ground forces tactical network lost $125 million, the Joint Tactical Radio System lost $50 million and Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio lost $5 million, all in unobligated balances that will be redirected to other projects instead of staying in their original accounts.

For the Navy, HASC added $450 million for five additional Growlers, though the Navy had requested 22. The committee added $82 million to buy 96 more Tomahawk  missiles – nearly double what the Navy planned to buy, but creating what the committee considers a “minimum sustaining rate” for industry.

The committee reduced the Littoral Combat Ship program to just two ships in FY ’15 for a savings of $350 million — $450 million was taken out of the shipbuilding account but $100 million added in as advance procurement for the ship that would then be bumped into FY ’16. The committee took $54 million out of the DDG-1000 program with no explanation in the bill text.

For the Marine Corps, the committee took $20 million from its Humvee multiyear procurement fund, money which the committee considers “early to need.” It also took $5 million out of the Expeditionary Fire Support System, which it calls “excess to need.”

The Air Force lost $226 million from its KC-46A tanker program as it ramps up to the Low-Rate Initial Production 1 contract, a process the committee would slow.

Within the research and development budget, the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike program was slashed in half, from $403 million to $200 million, for a “program delay” not explained in the bill. The cut comes after seapower and projection forces subcommittee chairman Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) and ranking member Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) both expressed support for the program during the subcommittee markup last week but differed in their feelings on the requirements for the program – Forbes wants the Navy to reassess the survivability and payload requirements for the platform before moving forward, and McIntyre said he would like to see UCLASS move forward on schedule rather than go through what he called a redundant review.

The Marines would get $85 million more than they requested for research into their new Amphibious Combat Vehicle Increment 1.1 under this bill, and the Navy would receive $32 million more than requested to accelerate development of the RQ-4 Triton UAV’s sensor package.

The Air Force would receive $220 million to create a domestic rocket engine for use in lieu of the Russian-made RD-180. And the Missile Defense Agency would get $40 million more than requested for its ballistic missile defense Ground-Base Midcourse Defense program, as well as $13 million in weapons research dollars to create a directed energy ballistic missile kill capability.

The heavy investment in procurement and research – which in several cases are marked specifically as measures to protect the defense industrial base – come at the expense of operations and maintenance. Though the NDAA fact sheet touts adding $1 billion to readiness programs, it cuts even more to make way for the other spending, dropping to $164.3 billion largely through reductions in service contracts for facilities maintenance, engineering and a range of other activities.