By Emelie Rutherford
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) was poised last night to weigh proposals to buy more F/A-18 E/F fighter jets and compel the Pentagon to account for any illegal government subsidies received by companies vying to build the tanker aircraft.
The committee, as part of its all-day markup of the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill, also was expected to pass an amendment last night limiting the Navy to retiring only two ships for every three new vessels it brings into the fleet.
During the bill-writing session yesterday, the panel formally endorsed plans, approved last week at the subcommittee level, to authorize spending $485.1 million for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter second and alternate engine, a General Electric [GE]-Rolls-Royce effort Congress consistently funds over Pentagon objections.
The panel did not recommend buying any more of Boeing‘s [BA] C-17 cargo aircraft, and no amendments to fund more of them were offered or talked about as of Defense Daily‘s deadline last night.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has pledged to recommend President Barack Obama veto defense legislation backing the second engine and more C-17s.
The HASC bill authorizes Pentagon funding, which is officially approved with the separate appropriations bill that the House and Senate appropriations committees still are crafting behind the scenes.
HASC Air and Land Forces subcommittee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) was expected to offer an Air Force tanker-related amendment last night, after press time. It was expected to call on the Pentagon to review the impact on the tanker competition by government subsidies deemed illegal by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The WTO issued a report in March, which the European Union is expected to appeal, saying some European government aid to European firm Airbus was illegal. European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS), Airbus’ parent company, is competing against Boeing for the tanker contract.
Smith’s amendment was expected to be supported by Boeing backers on the HASC, who hail from states with Boeing facilities including Washington. Yet the committee also has members from Alabama who support EADS’s bid because the European firm could partly build the planes in their state.
Also yesterday, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) tried to garner Democratic support, behind the scenes, for authorizing $640 million to buy eight additional F/A-18 E/Fs from Boeing. Yet key Democrats remained concerned about where a corresponding reduction would be made in the bill to pay for the additional fighters, according to lawmakers and aides. Akin, ranking member of the Seapower and Expeditionary Forces subcommittee, was considering proposing an amendment that would take some of the money for the F/A-18 E/Fs from a new so-called “rapid-innovation fund” established in the defense bill this year.
HASC Sea and Land Forces subcommittee Chairman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) also planned to offer an amendment last night that would limit the Navy to retiring only two ships for every three it enters into the fleet.
Taylor told Defense Daily he planned to support another amendment, from Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), calling for the Navy to keep in the fleet two specific large-deck amphibious ships it has planned to retire. Taylor wants the service to keep using some frigates that are slated for retirement, but said HASC members would not specify the Navy stall plans to retire frigates.
“That way if some of those frigates are better than others (Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead will) make the call,” Taylor said, adding frigates would be the logical ships for Roughead to delay retiring. “They’re the newest vessels of what he wants to retire, and they also have the smallest crews.”
HASC Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) was said to support Taylor’s amendment, which was expected to pass as part of a package of amendments without debate.
The committee also was poised last night to debate missile-defense amendments offered by Republicans, including one calling for the Obama administration to give Congress a detailed plan for its new European missile-defense setup. Another amendment would require the administration to continue developing long-range missile defenses to protect against Iranian threats that Republicans fear could emerge sooner than anticipated.
The HASC wants to compel the Navy to tell it if more Aegis ships are needed for the Obama administration’s new missile defense plans. It approved an amendment yesterday from Akin requiring the Navy submit a report on requirements for major surface vessels needed for missile defense no later than March 1.
The committee also agreed to lessen a previously proposed cut to the Army’s Early Infantry Brigade Combat Team (EIBCT) effort, the successor to the Army’s dismantled Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization program, to $779.4 million. The Air and Land Forces subcommittee previously called for cutting $891 million from the Army’s $2.2 billion EIBCT request. Yesterday’s change adds some procurement funding for unmanned aerial and ground vehicles, and some research monies for engineering and program management.
The Air and Land Forces panel previously called for zeroing out procurement funding and cutting some of the research monies the Army requested for EIBCT, in part because the service has unspent funds from past years. The reduction also reflects a cut to the Army’s request for the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS), which the service canceled.
The House is expected to take up the defense authorization bill next week.