So far, three of the four defense committees have marked up the defense authorization and appropriations bill, and based on early returns it’s anybody’s guess just how the EA-18G Growler will fare when the final bills are passed. There are some clues, however.
Each committee apparently sees a need for the aircraft, but none of them approved the same funding level: the House Armed Services Committee approved only $450 million for five Growlers, the House Appropriations defense subcommittee added $975 million for 12 aircraft, and the Senate Armed Services Committee added only $100 million to keep the production line open. The Navy indicated it would like 22 Growlers in its list of unfunded priorities submitted to Congress earlier this year.
But even though the F/A-18 and EA-18G programs continue to enjoy support in Congress, it appears the enthusiasm lawmakers had last year for the program after both authorizers and appropriators allocated $75 million in advance procurement funding of 22 F/A-18s has been overtaken by growing concerns about shrinking funding.
So instead of pushing for the full 22 aircraft, manufacturer Boeing is asking Congress to at least give them five aircraft to keep the production line, said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
“Boeing told the HASC that if they got five aircraft, they could probably get by,” he said, noting that the company’s argument was that adding one or two growlers to a few squadrons would bring a significant benefit. “Boeing’s strategy is, if they can keep the production line open for another year, they can try to get more foreign buyers to buy Super Hornets or Growlers.”
The Australians, for example, are buying more Growlers, and the growing uncertainty and cost in the F-35 program could help Boeing sell even more aircraft to wavering countries. Canada, for example, is mulling whether to hold a new competition instead of just awarding the contract to Lockheed for the F-35 as its next-generation aircraft, and the Super Hornet would be a candidate.
The good news for Boeing is that it appears it has a good chance to at least keep the production line functioning for another year with a handful of Growler buys. The bad news, Clark said, is that the company is not likely to get much more than that at this point.