The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) on Thursday approved its markup of the fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill in a 22-4 vote. Although the bill would fully fund controversial platforms like the F-35 joint strike program and the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) — both of which committee chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has rallied against in the past — release of that money comes with strings attached.
Like the House committee’s National Defense Authorization Act, SASC’s version shifts about $38 billion in operations and maintenance from the base budget into the wartime spending account, known as Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), in order to sidestep budget caps and fund the full amount requested in the president’s budget. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any move that boosts defense spending without making increases to other parts of the budget. 
McCain told reporters Thursday that he hopes Congress can satisfy some of Obama’s concerns, adding that “when the president vetoes a defense authorization bill, it’s a very serious step.” However, SASC has also included a compromise measure on Naval Station Guantanamo Bay that McCain believes could persuade the president to rescind his veto threat. The compromise calls for the president to submit a plan to close the detention facility, which must be approved by the House and Senate before moving forward on shuttering.
The mark contains a slew of changes to major weapons programs. Unsurprisingly, SASC would ban the Air Force from retiring the A-10 Warthog and fully funds its continued operations. The bill also adds procurement funding for weapons listed by the service chiefs on their unfunded priorities list, including six F-35B Joint Strike Fighters for the Marine Corps and 12 F/A-18 Super Hornets for the Navy.
However, procurement funding for the Air Force’s F-35A will be limited to $4.3 billion of the total $5.2 billion request until the defense secretary certifies that the jets will be received by the military with full combat capability, a committee staffer told reporters. The mark also requires the Pentagon to re-validate the size of its total F-35 buy.
If adopted, the bill would once again force the Navy to change its plans for a carrier-based unmanned aircraft. SASC authorized $350 million to complete any remaining testing for the Navy’s X-47B unmanned aircraft demonstrator, which was developed to validate whether drones could be integrated into the normal operations of an aircraft carrier.
The X-47B program was supposed to lead into an operational program of record for the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike aircraft, or UCLASS. However, the committee wants to create a brand new competitive prototyping effort to bridge the gap, as UCLASS has stalled while the Navy reevaluates requirements for the program. SASC proposed $375 million for design and development of at least two “long-range strike” prototypes, the bulk of which would be completed in 2017, a committee staffer said.
The mark also contains restrictions on the LCS program, which McCain has harshly criticized in the past. Three vessels are fully funded for fiscal year 2016, but the committee limits all procurement funding for LCS 25 and 26 until the Pentagon provides a new acquisition strategy for LCS 25 through 32, a new acquisition strategy for the mission modules, a test and evaluation master plan for the mission modules, a committee staffer said.
SASC also approved language that would limit 75 percent of procurement funding for LCS 33 — which will be the first vessel to be designated a frigate and to receive upgrades to its armor, weapons and sensors — until Congress receives an updated capabilities development document, a capabilities assessment and a modernization plan that maps out frigate upgrades.
On the whole, however, the mark protects shipbuilding and speeds up certain programs. The NDAA would boost shipbuilding accounts about $1.7 billion above the president’s budget, a committee staffer said. Included in that is about $400 million more for DDG-51 incremental funding to purchase an additional ship, as well as more money for LHA-8, LX(R), and the Virginia-class submarine.
Unlike HASC, the Senate committee retained the existing 2-4-6 plan to modernize Ticonderoga-class cruisers, which would lay up two hulls at a time for four-year service life upgrades. However, the mark contains language to force the Navy to fund it out of its normal accounts, not the ship modernization, operations and sustainment fund.
The mark decreases the Army’s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical program by $200 million, but fully funds the president’s request for armored tracked and wheeled vehicles, including their upgrades and modernization.
The mark contains a number of acquisition reform proposals, including requiring more involvement from the service chiefs, McCain said.
“The service chiefs will be directly responsible for the acquisition process and any possible cost overruns that are associated with it,” he said. “We created new mechanisms to ensure accountability for the results.”
The bill also mandates a 30 percent funding cut for the Pentagon’s headquarters and administrative staff over the next four years, with will start with a 7.5 percent reduction in staff next year. The move will save the Defense Department $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2017.