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House panel OKs more planes, not more airmen

The House Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2009 defense budget gives the Air Force a shot in the arm, approving funding for service priorities such as more F-22s, C-17s and C-130Js and providing start-up cash for the KC-45 tanker program.

But the bill, passed by the committee Thursday, denies an Air Force request in its wish list for about 14,000 more airmen — pretty much ending, like the Senate’s version of the funding bill, any chance for an early end to the drawdown.

The Air Force’s unfunded priority list — which highlights needs the Air Force could not fit into its budget — had included a need for $385 million to keep the service’s end strength at around 330,000 rather than planned draw down to 316,771.

In testimony about the budget in February, Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne said the service was getting increasingly nervous that completing the original plan to shrink the service to 316,600 airmen would cut too deep.

He said the 2005 plan to draw down to 316,000 did not account for growth of the Army — which will require more airmen to support it — and the continued use of airmen to fill Army taskings “in lieu of” soldiers.

The committee did approve funding for an additional 450 airmen, but those positions result from a 2008 order that the military stop converting military medical billets to civilian positions.

The committee also directed the Defense Department to report on the efforts of the Navy and Air Force to prepare their personnel for ground-combat roles. About 6,000 airmen are currently serving in ground roles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The committee approved $3.9 billion to buy 15 additional C-17s in 2009. The funding was one of the top items on the unfunded priority list and is critical to keeping open the production line and the option to buy more aircraft in the future.

But the committee provided the C-17 funding only grudgingly, saying in a summary of the bill that the money is needed “to compensate for shortsightedness in the department’s planning process.”

The Senate did not include funding for more C-17s in its version of the bill, so the House and Senate will have to resolve that difference in conference before the bill can become law.

Along with providing funding to buy 20 F-22 Raptors in 2009 — the last of the 183 currently approved — the House also indicated it supports buying an additional 20 F-22s in fiscal 2010. The committee added $523 million to buy long-lead-time items, such as hard-to-acquire metals and parts, for 20 airplanes.

“The committee feels that the Air Force should continue F-22 procurement in” 2010, the bill summary says.

That will come as welcome news to Air Force leaders, who have stated publicly that the 183 Raptors approved so far fall short of what the service needs.

The Senate, in its version of the bill passed May 1, also added around $500 million for F-22s, but left open the option of using the money to close the production line rather than buy more aircraft. That decision will be made by the next president, the Senate report says.

Also included in the House bill is $508 million to buy four MC-130Js for Air Force Special Operations Command and two HC-130Js for Air Combat Command, as well as $495 million to fund development of a second engine for the F-35 program. Both measures were also included in the Senate bill — though the amounts varied slightly — virtually ensuring they will be funded in the final budget. The committee provided $832 million to get the new KC-45 tanker program rolling, despite threats from some committee members to cut off funding because of the Air Force’s decision to buy the tankers from Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. rather than Boeing.

But the bill includes four provisions that express dissatisfaction with the involvement of EADS, which some have accused of being illegally subsidized by European governments.

One of the provisions requires the Air Force to take another look at the KC-45 contract award if the World Trade Organization rules that EADS received illegal subsidies. The bill also prohibits the Defense Department from awarding future contracts to companies that receive illegal subsidies.

The tanker award decision has also been criticized for eroding the American defense industrial base, and the House bill includes a provision requiring the Defense Department to consider the impact on the industrial base in future program awards.

The tanker decision is currently being reviewed by the Government Accountability Office, and a ruling is expected in June.

The House bill, like the Senate’s, also takes aim at the Air Force’s nuclear weapons surety programs. The summary of the bill says the accidental transfer of nuclear weapons from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., in August 2007 and the 2006 shipment of classified nuclear warhead parts to Taiwan discovered in March “raise significant concerns about nuclear weapons inventory control.”

The bill directs the Defense Department to report to the committee on steps being taken to address the problem and how recommendations made by the Defense Science Board in February are being implemented.

Both the Senate and House armed services committees have now approved their versions of the budget, but the measure is still far from becoming law. The full House and Senate must pass their respective bills, and then the differences in the bills must be ironed out in conference and the compromise version approved by the president.

While fiscal 2009 begins Oct. 1, Congress usually is unable to finalize the spending bill until late fall or winter.