Air Force can use savings for bomber, fighters - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Air Force can use savings for bomber, fighters

Whatever money the Air Force saves by reorganizing, it can spend on developing a new bomber and keeping its aging fighters in the air.

The quid pro quo follows a push from Defense Secretary Robert Gates for all the services to find $100 billion in savings over the next five years. The Air Force was already looking for cuts when the order came down Aug. 9, said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley.

“This work had been underway, but certainly the [Defense] secretary gave us a shot in the arm and gave us a great, I think, inducement to proceed with this work with a simple caveat: What we found within the Air Force for savings and efficiencies would stay in the Air Force,” Donley told reporters Jan. 12.

For the Air Force, finding and reallocating those saving towards procurement is critical, said Dan Goure, an analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.

“It better be a viable strategy; otherwise the Air Force in particular, is out of luck. The Air Force has so many demands on it for recapitalizing the force,” Goure said.

New bomber

The new bomber will be a key beneficiary of the savings drive, Donley said.

The aircraft will be able to be flown by an onboard crew or remotely, the secretary said. It will be part of a “family of systems” that will also handle ground surveillance and electronic attack. Donley said it would be able to carry nuclear weapons, but would be primarily geared toward conventional war, and might not be immediately certified for nuclear missions.

Unlike the service’s previous next-generation bomber effort, the new aircraft will use proven technologies, he said.

“In contrast to the program that was canceled in 2009, next-generation bomber as it was known, development of this new bomber will leverage more mature technologies and we think will reduce the risk in the program, allow us to deliver with greater confidence on schedule, and in quantities sufficient to support long-term sustainment of long range bomber capabilities after the current fleet of B-1s and B-52s retire,” Donley said.

F-35 delay

The initial operational capability date for the Air Force version of the F-35 joint strike fighter is likely to slip due to recent program changes instituted to help right the troubled tri-service effort, Donley said.

“I think that’s implied with the additional dollars and time required in system development,” he said when asked whether the recent restructuring would delay the in-service date.

Donley did not elaborate, but said additional details would follow.

The secretary said the Air Force would benefit from Gates’ decision to put the Marine Corps vertical landing F-35B variant, the most technically challenged and complex version, on a two-year probationary period.

“The major decision from this [Technical Baseline Review] has been to decouple the testing of the U.S. Marine short take-off, vertical-landing variant from the conventional and carrier variant to ensure we do not slow progress on the conventional and carrier variant,” he said.

Donley also said the service would buy 16 F-35 simulators, which, among other things, will save fuel.

“In the Joint Strike Fighter program, it is forecast that up to 50 percent of pilot training will be accomplished through simulators,” he said.

Current fighters

The savings drive will also allow the service to shave the time required to refit F-15C and F-15E fighters with active electronically scanned array radars and new operational flight programs, Donley said. Upgrades to the F-15C will wrap up one year early; those for the multirole F-15E Strike Eagle some eight years ahead.

Donley said the workhorse F-16C multirole fighter would definitely receive a Service Life Extension Program.

“They continue to refine the requirements for F-16 SLEPs going forward. What kind? How much? And when? And we are committing resources in that direction,” he said.

The F-16 work is directly tied to the continuing delays in getting the F-35 into service, he said.

Space programs

Donley also announced a new approach to satellite acquisition that involves buying satellites in batches of two or more and using more fixed-price contracts.

He said the service is still working out details of the new approach, which is meant to reduce the costs associated with uneven funding and production gaps.

Donley also said the Air Force would commit to buying five heavy lift rocket boosters, or Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles, per year to ensure the Defense Department, NASA and the National Reconnaissance Office have access to space when they need it.