The Defense Department is planning to cancel the Air Force’s Global Hawk Block 30 variant of the unmanned aerial vehicle, retire C-5As and C-130s as well as divest a number of C-27s, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said yesterday.
As part of $487 billion in cuts over 10 years required by the Congressional Budget Control Act, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the Global Hawk Block 30, built by Northrop Grumman [NOC], simply became too expensive for its purpose.
“Block 30 priced itself out of the niche for taking pictures from the air,” Carter said of the aircraft designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
Despite wanting to cancel the Block 30 program, the Pentagon plans to continue the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program, the Navy’s version of Global Hawk, as well as the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS), a NATO program for U.S. allies. The Pentagon still remains committed to the Block 40 build of Global Hawk.
With the possible cancellation of the Block 30 program, DoD will continue to rely on U-2 spy planes, which Northrop Grumman chided in a statement for “placing pilots in danger, having limited flight duration and providing limited sensor requirements” for airborne reconnaissance photos.
Northrop Grumman also said in a statement it would work with the Pentagon to assess alternatives to program termination. The company also said it was disappointed in the decision in light of a recent acquisition memorandum that said there are “no alternatives to the program which will provide acceptable capability to meet the joint military requirement at less cost,” according to Northrop Grumman.
DoD is also planning to retire 27 “aging” C-5As, 65 of “the oldest” C-130s, also developed by Lockheed Martin, and divesting 38 C-27s, all developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT]. The Pentagon white paper released yesterday, titled Defense Budget Priorities and Choices, says this will enable DOD to “streamline and standardize” these fleets as well as making it more nimble.
“Even when supporting a major war, we will have the lift available to move additional capability to another region,” the white paper says.
Lockheed Martin said in a statement that, while disappointed in DoD’s decision, they remain committed to the Air Force’s fleet.
“We are committed to continuing our support for the entire U.S. Air Force fleet of C-5s (As, Bs, Cs and Ms) and recognize the vital role they play in supporting military and humanitarian operations around the world,” the statement said.
Earlier in the week, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno suggested the C-27 program was being considered for termination in the fiscal year 2013 defense budget (Defense Daily, Jan. 25). The program, a former joint Air Force-Army effort, has been run by the Air Force since 2009.
For a number of months, concerned politicians wrote in support of the C-27J, the latest version of the program, and its mission supporting the Army to DOD officials. On Dec. 20, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) wrote Panetta, saying elimination of the program would “adversely impact key homeland security capabilities as well as our ability to create jobs.” The governors of Maryland, Connecticut, Michigan, Mississippi and South Dakota separately urged similar concerns in a letter two days later.
The House Army Aviation Caucus wrote Army Secretary John McHugh Nov. 15, concerned about Air Force testimony that the service might be “abandoning the C-27J as the primary platform to support the Army’s Time Sensitive/Mission Critical Mission (TC/MC).” The letter made it clear Congress supports the aircraft and “expects the Air Force to honor its commitment to support the Army’s TS/MS mission specifically with the C-27J.”
House members wrote in October and November to Panetta and Carter in November, expressing concerns about cuts to the numbers of aircraft to be procured and the need to support warfighters and homeland security.
The C-27J is a medium lift, twin-engine aircraft that can land and take off from remote, short and unimproved runways.
The L-3 Communications [LLL] team of Finmeccanica’s Alenia North America and Boeing [BA] won a potential $2 billion-plus contract in 2007 for the aircraft first delivered to the joint Army-Air Force program office in 2008. (Defense Daily, June 14, 2007, Sept. 29, 2008).