By Emelie Rutherford
A senior Pentagon official told vexed House lawmakers yesterday a new estimate shows his decision to scale back on congressional plans for F-22 jet purchases before the new administration’s January arrival may not increase costs for the program.
And while the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) members lambasted Pentagon acquisition chief John Young for not following their direction in the fiscal year 2009 defense authorization bill, aides said there appears to be nothing Congress can do at this time to compel the outgoing Pentagon leadership to heed lawmakers’ wishes.
Most of the 11 lawmakers who spoke at a congressional hearing said they want the Pentagon to spend $140 million this month, in money Congress appropriated and authorized in the FY ’09 defense budget, on advance-procurement parts for 20 Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built F-22 fighters, which would be bought in FY ’10 pending the Pentagon and Congress’ subsequent approval. Yet Young–who has hesitated to commit to buying any more F-22s than the 183 planned through FY ’09–earlier this month agreed to spend just $50 million on advanced funds for four FY ’10 F-22s. He wants to allow the next administration to decide as soon as Jan. 21 whether to obligate the additional $90 million for the 16 other aircraft.
“The Congress rules,” House Armed Services Air Land subcommittee Chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) admonished Young, echoing sentiments of other lawmakers at the subcommittee hearing held during a lame-duck session at the end of the 110th Congress. “The Pentagon can propose, and not only propose but admonish and engender and…make all kinds of propositions and put forward recommendations….[But] in the end Congress makes the decisions.”
Young, who was joined by Principal Deputy Assistant Air Force Secretary for Acquisition and Management David Van Buren at the at-times-contentious hearing, stuck with the refrain that he does not want to incur any unnecessary F-22 costs, because President-elect Barack Obama’s administration could decide to buy no F-22s in FY ’10.
After lawmakers repeatedly said additional costs would be incurred if the full $140 million in advance-procurement funds are not obligated this month, Young said the Air Force received data from industry yesterday showing that may not be true.
“The Air Force today received a not-to-exceed estimate, which is a contractually useful number, that says indeed if you pay advance procurement obligated as four [this month] plus 16 [later, it] will cost no more than we thought it would cost for 20 [obligated this month],” Young said. “That’s excellent news. It reflects good cooperation between industry and the government to try to hold the price.”
Van Buren said that “not to exceed” figure for four aircraft is valid until Nov. 26, and for the 16 other aircraft is valid until March 16.
Young revealed this information, about the new estimate the Air Force received, after warning that the new administration “will face some risk of the airplanes costing the taxpayer a little more money if they buy themselves decision space between Jan. 21 and March.”
Lawmakers said they have been told by the Air Force that the move to obligate only $50 million in advanced funds could increase costs by as much as $500 million if the new administration decides after Jan. 21 to buy the 20 FY ’10 F-22s.
Young issued a Nov. 10 acquisition decision memorandum (ADM) allowing the Air Force to spend the $50 million in advanced funds for the four F-22s.
According to the FY ’09 defense authorization bill, Obama’s administration must decide no later than March 1 if it wants to actually buy any F-22s in FY ’10. The bill states only up to $140 million of $523 million in advance-procurement funds appropriated for 20 FY ’10 aircraft can be spent before that decision is made.
Young’s ADM says the new administration could decide as soon as Jan. 21–the day after Obama’s inauguration–whether to obligate the $90 million in advance-procurement funds that he declined to allow to be spent.
In addition to lawmakers in both chambers, Lockheed Martin and the Air Force pushed for the $140 million to be released for a contract award by Nov. 27. Senior Pentagon officials did not seek the $523 million in advanced-procurement F-22 funds inserted by lawmakers, and are concerned about monies needed for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Young and Van Buren said they plan very soon to talk to Obama’s transition team about the F-22 matter.
“I can assure you that as a result of today we’re going to make sure that transition team knows that they better check in here, too,” Abercrombie said at the end of yesterday’s hearing. “They need to make sure that they triangulate…between transition team and the Pentagon…[and with] the other end of that triangle [which] is over here.”