Two C-17s added to budget request - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Two C-17s added to budget request

The Air Force has included two additional C-17 Globemasters in a $16.9 billion request to Congress that was released today. The unfunded priorities list would be in addition to the $110.7 billion in the President’s budget, released Feb. 5.

Included in the unfunded priority list is $1.01 billion for two C-17s, along with funds for advance procurement for long lead items and advance purchases of fleet spares to sustain the C-17 fleet, which has been experiencing a great deal of wear and tear related to the ongoing war on terror, according to the list.

Though Globemasters are among the youngest airlifters in the fleet, they have been used far more frequently over the past four years than originally envisioned, officials have said.

Defense analyst Loren Thompson of The Lexington Institute in Virginia said earlier versions of the unfunded priority list included 15 additional C-17s, then 10, but said he “wouldn’t make too much of [the final version requesting only two]. … The Air Force obviously wants many more of them [but] it has to worry about appearances.”

Referring to recent hints that the Air Force may not move forward on plans to modernize the C-5A Galaxy, but instead put the money into other aircraft, Thompson said this could mean a few dozen more Globemasters.

“If they’re going to replace the C-5A, they’re going to need dozens of additional C-17s,” he said.

During the Air Force Association conference in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 8, senior leaders indicated they may be looking for alternatives to spending the billions of dollars needed on the Avionics Modernization Program and the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program for the older C-5As.

“There is frustration with the AMP program and RERP program because it’s so long, and do you really want to spend that RERP money on the C-5A? Wouldn’t it be better to get the [C-5] Bs as reliable as you can?” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley asked.

Air Force officials believe plane maker Boeing, which has the contract for the modernization programs, will trip a cost overrun threshold — a so-called Nunn-McCurdy breach — meaning that the program’s cost have grown more than 50 percent higher than initial estimates. If so, that will require the Air Force to go back to Congress to justify the increases.

Karen Walker contributed to this report