The Air Force’s new bomber, Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and MQ-9 Reaper were among the weapons programs affected when lawmakers on Monday evening chopped $5 billion from the National Defense Authorization Act to bring the bill in line with the budget agreement.
The deal permits Congress to appropriate $607 billion—$548 billion in base budget authority and about $59 billion in overseas contingency operations (OCO) funds—for defense in fiscal year 2016, an amount that falls short of the $612 billion sought by President Barack Obama and the congressional defense committees.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) had warned that lawmakers would not be able to shield procurement accounts from cuts. “There’s going to be pain,” he said Monday at the Defense One 2015 Summit.
Members of Congress slashed $230 million from the Air Force’s long range strike bomber because the Pentagon had pushed back the contract award to Northrop Grumman [NOC] from this spring until October, according to a document outlining adjustments to the NDAA that was released to House Armed Services Committee (HASC) members during a closed-door meeting Monday evening. That reduction will not result in a program delay, a House aide said.
An $8 million cut to the Army’s Joint Air to Ground Missile (JAGM) was made because of similar delays in awarding the contract to Lockheed Martin [LMT].
Lawmakers were not able to sustain increases they wanted to make to programs such as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer (DDG-51), which originally picked up an additional $60 million for modifications and $400 million in incremental funds to procure an additional ship. The DDG-51 program was cut by $150 million, although the document does not spell out whether that will impact procurement or modernization.
They also slashed $100 million from the PAC-3 missile segment enhancement’s $200 million increase, bringing that program to about $514 million.
Likewise, General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial system suffered an $80 million hit to a $160 million boost meant to accelerate Air Force procurement.
Research and development also fared poorly. Lawmakers quartered the new technology offset program aimed at spearheading development in directed energy, high-speed munitions, autonomous systems, undersea warfare, cyber technology and data analytics, slashing $100 million of its original $400 million authorization.
Basic research for all of the services suffered a blow from the reductions. The Army’s basic research account was cut by $20 million, the Navy’s by $27.5 million and the Air Force’s by $22.5 million.
Lawmakers also agreed to deepen the cuts for other weapon systems that had already seen decreases in the 2016 NDAA. They took another $10 million from the Army’s maligned Distributed Common Ground System, bringing the program down a total of $20 million this year. For the service’s midtier networking vehicular radio (MNVR) program, lawmakers added an $894,000 reduction to the $5 million cut already made in the original bill.
The department’s $464 million purchase of Lockheed Martin’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system was reduced by $50 million. Lawmakers also shaved $10 million from modifications for tactical wheeled vehicles and $30 million from Standard Missile-3 procurement from Raytheon [RTN].
Modifications to the Navy’s F/A-18 Hornet and Air Force’s F-15—both made by Boeing [BA]—were cut by $10 million each. Members also cut the upgrade program for the H-1 helicopter by $5 million.
About $1 billion of the cuts came from adjustments to the price of fuel, which was lower than anticipated. The Pentagon will be required to cut headquarters staffing by $435 million. Army and Army National Guard readiness reductions amounted to $250 million and $192 million, respectively.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Thornberry introduced the revised NDAA in the House, where it is scheduled to come up for a vote on Thursday under a suspension of the rules. Under that mechanism, legislation can quickly be offered on the floor without amendments, but the bill will need a two-thirds majority to pass.
Thornberry has said the House and Senate armed services committees would coordinate with appropriators while making cuts to the NDAA, which sets authorizes funding policy. However, it will fall to the appropriations committees to draft the omnibus spending bill that will actually fund the government. Lawmakers must pass the omnibus bill by Dec. 11 to avoid a government shutdown.