By Jen DiMascio
Nineteen Senators last week urged Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle to provide enough funding for C-17 Globemasters in the administration’s fiscal year 2009 budget request.
“For each of the last two years, the Pentagon has failed to fund C-17 aircraft in the annual budget submission, which would have resulted in the termination of the production line were it not for congressional action,” the letters said. “Last year, and again this year, the Air Force asked for Congress’s help to add C-17s after submitting the budget. While this approach may have had utility in the short term, the strategy is no longer viable.”
The letter notes that the Boeing [BA] C-17 production line is the only one in the nation producing strategic airlifters and adds that it is important to maintain the capability and the 30,000 jobs that come with it.
Early this year, Boeing officials told reporters it would be forced to begin closing the production line without orders for at least 15 C-17s (Defense Daily, March 5).
Beyond the need to maintain the strategic capability, the senators made the case that the Air Force already needs the planes and will need more in the future.
“The number of C-17 aircraft built to date supports a ‘minimum requirement’ as noted by numerous studies and military officials,” the letter said. “This minimalist approach to meeting our military airlift needs has resulted in, among other things, the need to charter Russian built airlifters to deliver [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles] to our men and women serving in Iraq.”
Gen. Norton Schwartz, commander of Transportation Command, recently wrote to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, appealing for a strategic airlift fleet of 205 C-17s–up from the current program of record to buy 190 (Defense Daily, Dec. 7).
Congress appears poised to add money for the aircraft; the leaders of both the House and Senate Appropriations defense subcommittees support earmarking funding for the planes.
Early this month, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) said he expected to see funding for 14 Globemasters in a supplemental spending bill that Congress will take up some time next year.
Support within Congress is not universal. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, refused to sign the defense authorization bill’s conference report because it grants the Pentagon the authority to buy eight C-17s. Moreover, the president announced his displeasure with the plus-up in a May statement of administration policy (Defense Daily, Sept. 11).
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) spearheaded the letter.
Others signing on include Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.), Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).