CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – DEFENSE
Updated Jan. 26, 2012 – 3:48 p.m.
Pentagon Budget Changes Include Retiring Planes, Canceling Programs
By Megan Scully and Frank Oliveri, CQ Staff
The Pentagon has proposed a set of major changes to comply with new budget caps, including aircraft retirements, at least one base-closure round and delays and cancellations to major procurement and modernization programs — all moves that defense leaders acknowledged could be a tough sell on Capitol Hill.
Defense Secretary
“This is going to be tough,” Panetta said when asked how he expects the budget cuts to be received on Capitol Hill. “This is a tough challenge and nobody ought to underestimate just how difficult it will be.”
In a written statement released immediately after Panetta concluded his remarks, Arizona Sen.
“Every American should be concerned about what these cuts mean to our ability to safeguard our national interests in a time of dynamic change around the world,” McCain said. “As I have long said, the security challenges we face around the world today are more daunting than at any time in recent memory.”
Across the Capitol, Virginia Rep.
Still, the Pentagon appears ready to resist wholesale changes to the proposal. Panetta, a former Democratic congressman from California, suggested there is “little room here for significant modification.”
The Defense Department is seeking a topline defense budget request of $525 billion in fiscal 2013. The figure, which includes base defense spending and military construction, is $6 billion less than fiscal 2012 levels.
The Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account, which supports the war in Afghanistan and terrorism-related operations, would be set at $88.4 billion, which is significantly less than the $115 billion enacted in fiscal 2012. The decline is attributable to the full withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, although some Iraq-related funding remains in OCO because of the continued U.S. effort to support the Iraqi government.
In making decisions on specific programs, Panetta said the Pentagon put a premium on “multi-mission weaponry and technology” that can support an agile fighting force. Unmanned systems, satellites, helicopters and aircraft carriers fared well, while more specific, single-mission platforms were targeted for cuts.
The Pentagon, for instance, will divest itself of 38 C-27J cargo aircraft, calling the plane in a summary document a “niche capability” whose mission can be handled by larger, more versatile C-130 aircraft.
But the Air Force will also seek to retire a host of legacy aircraft, including 27 C-5A transport aircraft and 65 C-130 transport planes, which the department says it no longer needs because of planned reductions in force levels. The reduction in C-5As will require the Air Force to reduce the total number of strategic transports below the congressional requirement of 301 strategic airlift aircraft.
“For the airlift, this is capacity that is excess to need, and in this budget environment we can’t justify retaining capacity that is excess to need,” undersecretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter told reporters.
Pentagon Budget Changes Include Retiring Planes, Canceling Programs
Congress agreed in the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill (PL 112-81) to reduce the requirement for C-5 and C-17 cargo aircraft from 316 to 301. Further reductions would require congressional approval and could face staunch opposition from C-5 supporters on Capitol Hill.
Sources tracking the budget deliberations said the Pentagon also will seek to terminate the Avionics Modernization Program for more than 200 C-130s.
F-35 Slowdown
Panetta’s proposal also reduces the number of Air Force tactical air squadrons and delays production of the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while still preserving the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force versions of the stealthy jet.
The Pentagon continues to support the development and production of the F-35, the largest program in the defense budget. But the Defense Department will seek to buy 29 aircraft in fiscal 2013, 13 fewer than originally planned. In 2014, the Pentagon will again buy 29 of the jets instead of the 44 once planned, while cutting the 2015 buy from 81 to 44 and the 2016 buy from 108 to 66, sources said.
Delaying production of the planes could allow more time for testing, a key concern for McCain, who has been highly critical of the program. Other lawmakers also worried about cost hikes on a program whose price tag is now 85 percent over initial estimates.
But pushing back production of the aircraft built by Lockheed Martin Corp. could affect thousands of jobs across the country, likely prompting some backlash from members with a vested interest in the program.
Frustrated with cost hikes, the Pentagon is canceling Block 30 of the Global Hawk program, which was supposed to provide the same capability as U-2 spy aircraft for less money. But the expected savings never materialized.
“That’s the fate of things that become too expensive in a resource-constrained environment,” Carter said.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon plans to preserve all three legs — sea, air and land — of the nation’s nuclear arsenal, although it will seek some savings in the nuclear force.
Defense officials will, for instance, delay by two years the program to build 12 new submarines to replace the aging Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine. The delay will create a gap between the first Ohio-class retirements, which will begin in 2029, and the fielding of the new submarines. However, the two-year schedule slip will postpone heavy procurement investments to later in the decade.
The Navy currently spends roughly $1 billion a year on research and development for the nuclear-powered submarines, but advanced procurement spending will start around 2016 with the annual cost of the program rising steadily after that.
Asia Shift
Pentagon Budget Changes Include Retiring Planes, Canceling Programs
Despite a new defense strategy that focuses heavily on the Pacific, the Navy also will retire some older ships, including seven cruisers. Six of those ships did not have a ballistic missile defense capability, and the seventh is in need of costly hull repairs, according to the Pentagon.
The budget proposal also delays some other shipbuilding programs, including cutting two Littoral Combat Ships from the five-year spending plan.
But in a nod to the new strategy, the service will base some of its new Littoral Combat Ships in Singapore and Bahrain.
As expected, there will be new Marine Corps rotations in Australia and the Philippines, but the plans for basing in Japan and on Guam could be revised, sources said.
Meanwhile, Pentagon plans for a new round of base closures have already drawn opposition from Senate Armed Services Chairman
The Pentagon’s spending proposal will also call for expected reductions in the size of ground forces, which have grown during a decade of war. Army end strength will drop by 72,000 to 490,000 soldiers by fiscal 2017, while the Marine Corps will reduce its force from 202,000 to 182,000 over the same time period. National Guard and Reserve forces will also be trimmed, with potentially large reductions in air units.
First posted Jan. 26, 2012 12:20 p.m.