bring in the axe.

😡

The Defense Department has rebuffed an Air Force proposal to cut the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, opting instead to slash the Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor, which DOD leaders see as less transformational than JSF, according to sources and documents.

Program Budget Decision (PBD) No. 753, a budget document signed Dec. 23 by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, rejects an Air Force plan to shrink the service’s future F-35 procurement from 1,763 jets to about 1,200. The PBD, obtained by The DAILY Jan. 3, also calls on the Air Force to stop buying the F/A-22 at the end of fiscal 2008, halting ongoing Raptor procurement at 181 jets instead of the 277 the Air Force had planned.

Gen. John Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, had indicated that the Air Force was planning to cut its JSF buy because the F-35 was proving to be much more capable than the aircraft it is designed to replace (DAILY, Dec. 15). But the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) opted to cut the F/A-22 instead because the less expensive, multiservice F-35 fits better with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s transformation vision, said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute.

In another boost for JSF, the PBD upholds an earlier decision to continue the F-35’s alternative engine program.

The document, which would cut defense programs by a total of about $30 billion over six years, also calls for killing the Air Force’s C-130J transport aircraft program. The Air Force is in the midst of buying 168 C-130Js. Under the PBD, Marine Corps procurement of the tanker variant KC-130J will wrap up in FY ’06, years ahead of schedule.

Because the F/A-22 and C-130J are both built at Lockheed Martin’s Marietta, Ga., plant, an early end to both programs could mark “the beginning of the end of the Marietta aircraft plant,” Thompson told The DAILY.

Thompson said it is unclear if the C-130J’s demise was influenced by the Army’s problems in fitting its new equipment aboard the aircraft. He said OSD may be interested in pursuing an alternative to the C-130J, such as more Boeing C-17s or a C-130J successor.

JCM, WCMD-ER killed

Other significant changes called for in the PBD include the cancellation of the Army-led Joint Common Missile (JCM) and the Air Force’s Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser-Extended Range (WCMD-ER). Also killed would be the Joint Staff’s Joint Warfare Simulation (JWARS) program and the joint Family of Interoperable Operational Pictures (FIOP)/Single Integrated Ground Picture (SIGP) program.

The PBD reserves $5 billion a year from FY ’07 to FY ’11 for the Army’s ongoing reorganization, while missile defense would be cut by $5 billion from FY ’06 to FY ’11.

The PBD takes $1.2 billion from the multiservice V-22 Osprey to slow procurement of the tiltrotor aircraft. The Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) would lose almost $1.1 billion. Other reductions include $600 million to the Air Force’s E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A), $476 million to the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system and $400 million to the Air Force’s Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program.

For the Air Force-led Space Based Radar (SBR) program, which is being restructured, the PBD adds $592 million and calls for launching the first satellite in FY ’15. The Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite program gets an $825 million boost to support a first launch in FY ’08.

Funding is reduced for the Navy’s aircraft carriers, DD(X) destroyer, LPD-17 ship and Virginia-class submarine and the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. But $600 million is provided for the Navy to “design a future undersea superiority system alternative to the reduced submarine program that includes considerations of new propulsion systems,” the PBD says.

The PBD’s $30 billion in cuts are spread out as follows: $6 billion in FY ’06, $1.1 billion in FY ’07, $3.3 billion in FY ’08, $8.4 billion in FY ’09, $7.4 billion in FY ’10 and $3.9 billion in FY ’11. Thompson said the Office of Management and Budget originally proposed a $60 billion decrease but was told by the White House to cut that amount in half.

Thompson said the military services could try to reverse the cuts before the Bush Administration sends its FY ’06 budget request to Congress in early February, but he said it would be difficult to make major changes this late in the process.

Analysts expect congressional supporters of the F/A-22 and other programs to resist the proposed cuts.

“Congress is deeply divided over the need for the F/A-22 and DOD’s ability to afford it,” said Christopher Bolkcom, an aerospace analyst at the Congressional Research Service. “Clearly, many in Congress will welcome this development, but a core group of F/A-22 supporters on Capitol Hill is unlikely to take this cut sitting down. I anticipate an interesting hearing season this spring