A key House panel recommends the Air Force add eight MQ-9 Reapers to its fiscal year 2014 budget request as the panel is not happy with the service’s plan for ramping down production of the unmanned aerial vehicle.
The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) said in its FY ’14 report the idea was to reduce the MQ-9 production rate in a “more orderly and less disruptive manner” from 48 in FY ’12, to 36 in FY ’13 and, finally, to a “stable” rate of 24 from FY ’14 onward to completion. The MQ-9 Reaper is developed by General Atomics.
The Air Force, in its FY ’14 budget request, proposed procuring 12 MQ-9 Reapers, which the committee said is below the minimum sustaining rate. The committee said the Air Force’s proposal instead relies on an additional 12 MQ-9 aircraft authorized and appropriated in FY ’13 to “backfill” its FY ’14 request.
“The Air Force took this action despite no change in the MQ-9 fleet requirement,” the committee said in its report. “This decision represents complete and brazen contradiction of congressional intent.”
The committee’s recommendation of adding the eight MQ-9 Reapers came with the understanding that non-Defense Department purchases would help sustain the production line. The committee also directed the Air Force secretary to procure MQ-9 aircraft funded in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 at the annual rate authorized and appropriated by Congress.
According to its FY ’14 budget request, the Air Force is proposing to buy 12 MQ-9 Reapers at a price of $22.7 million each.
The committee also directs the Air Force secretary to submit a report with the FY ’15 budget request to the congressional defense committees providing a detailed, location-by-location schedule for the basing of MQ-9 Reapers. The committee wants that report to include, where appropriate, the replacement and planned disposition of MQ-1 Predator aircraft to be replaced by the MQ-9. The report should also include the criteria by which the Air Force determines the order of priority for MQ-9 “beddown” locations and the impact that MQ-1/MQ-9 transition will have on existing MQ-1 flying training units.
The Air Force was unable to comment by press time.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved, by a 22-8 vote, a $516 billion DoD budget bill before leaving for recess, returning less than a month before FY ’14 begins. The committee’s bill still would need to be passed by the Democratically-led Senate and reconciled with this very-different $512.5 billion Republican House bill before being sent to President Barack Obama.