Pentagon leaders proposed multiple weapons-program changes yesterday–including cutting F-35 Joint Strike Fighter procurement, cancelling block 30 Global Hawk drones, and delaying the new ballistic-missile submarine–in the opening salvo of a battle with congressional Republicans over defense budget cuts.
Additional weapon-system proposals include retiring cargo aircraft, cutting Navy shipbuilding, and cancelling plans to upgrade Humvees.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters that President Barack Obama’s $525 billion fiscal year 2013 defense budget proposal will include these and other equipment changes per its charge under the Budget Control Act of 2011 to cut $259 billion in planned spending over the next five years and $487 billion over a decade. The White House plans to send Congress the spending proposal, for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, on Feb. 13.
Panetta said the budget “recognizes that a critical part of our ability to mobilize is a healthy industrial base.”
“Maintaining the vitality of the industrial base and avoiding imposing unacceptable costs or risks on our critical suppliers will guide many of the decisions that we have made,” he said at a Pentagon briefing.
Still, Republican lawmakers who have been concerned about the $487 billion cut the longterm defense budget charged that the FY ’13 plan would hurt the defense industry.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) charged yesterday the budget would put “industrial capacity at risk” because of slowed or halted work on manufacturing production lines.
Panetta maintained his support for Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] F-35, the military’s largest weapons program, saying it “remains essential for the future of our superiority.” Yet in the FY ’13 budget the Pentagon wants to slow F-35 procurement “to complete more testing and make developmental changes to minimize concurrency issues before buying in significant quantities,” according to a 15-page budget summary from the Pentagon.
Lockheed Martin said in a statement that it believes the F-35 program, which has experienced delays and cost overruns, “is showing progress.”
“We understand that limited resources require the (Department of Defense) DoD to prioritize the department’s near-term national security needs, which requires difficult funding decisions, and we will work closely with our partners in the Department to understand the new acquisition strategy so we can focus on the new requirements with our partners and suppliers,” the company said.
The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has kept close watch on the F-35 program, and its chairman, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), said yesterday he favors a program delay that would help the program succeed.
“I think we’ve got to keep the cost down, but we’ve got to maintain the program,” Levin told reporters at the Capitol.
SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has been critical of F-35 cost overruns and at times questioned the program’s future, did not cite the jet-fighter changes when reacting to yesterday’s budget preview. McCain, in a general statement, said he is “deeply concerned” that the $487 billion in planned long-term defense cut would leave U.S. forces too small.
The budget summary the Pentagon released yesterday cites dozens of efforts that officials determined they cannot afford to continue because of the Budget Control Act.
“They’re not the things that are most important to our strategy and to our future,” Deputy Defense Secretary Aston Carter told reporters yesterday . “The things that are most important to our strategy and to our future we protected.”
The Pentagon wants to cancel the Global Hawk Block 30 unmanned reconnaissance aircraft program because it has not been able to provide the same capability as the U-2 manned airplane for less money, the budget summary says.
“As the program has matured, these cost savings have not materialized and, at best, we project the future cost of Global Hawk Block 30 operations to be comparable with the U-2,” the Pentagon document says. Because the cost of the Global Hawk program would “significantly exceed” the cost of the U-2 over the next five years–the Pentagon wants to kill the Block 30 effort and extend the U-2 program.
Contractor Northrop Grumman [NOC] said in a statement it is “disappointed” with the Pentagon’s decision to cancel the Global Hawk effort and “plans to work with the Pentagon to assess alternatives to program termination.”
Defense officials also want to delay by two years the nascent effort to develop a SSBN(X) ballistic-missile submarine to replace the current Ohio-class boomers.
“The schedule, as it was, was an optimistic one, maybe even verging on optimistic,” Carter told reporters yesterday. “This is a safer schedule, we’re sure we can make this schedule.” He said the Navy has made strides in lowering the cost of the pricy submarine effort some observers worry will overwhelm the Navy’s shipbuilding budget in future years.
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), chairman of the HASC’s Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee, blasted the proposed SSBN(X) delay.
“Our nuclear missile submarines are a vital piece of our nuclear deterrence, and I am concerned that this delay will put our ability to deter at risk,” Akin said in a statement. He further cited concerns that the Pentagon wants to cut at least 12 new Navy ships over the next five years and retire at least nine ships earlier than planned.
“It is stunning that the President would announce a strategy and then cut the Navy who will be called on to execute this strategy,” Akin charged.
The Pentagon hopes to retire seven Navy cruisers earlier than previously planned, delay a large-deck amphibious ship by a year, push off plans for one new Virginia-class submarine beyond the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP), cut two Littoral Combat Ships within the FYDP, remove eight Joint High Speed Vessels from the FYDP, and retire two LSD amphibious ships earlier than planned, according to the budget summary.
The FY ’13 budget also seeks to reduce the military’s airlift fleet by retiring 27 C-5A and 65 C-130 cargo aircraft, and divesting 38 C-27 transport aircraft.
“Our intensive review determined that we could reduce, streamline and standardize our air fleet with minimal risk,” Panetta said.
The forthcoming budget proposal will further seek to: cancel plans for upgrading Humvees and instead invest in the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle; reduce funding for the Army Ground Combat Vehicle effort already slowed by a contract protest; delay Army helicopter modernization plans by three to five years; cancel the Defense Weather Satellite System; and lower funding for the Joint Air-to-Ground Munition.