By Marina Malenic
The Air Force yesterday sent lawmakers a list of 20 mission critical items for which funding has not been requested in President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2010 Defense Department budget–chief among them, several programs that provide persistent battlefield surveillance for Central Command.
Topping the list is a Joint Urgent Operational Need for additional Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) capability. The Air Force wants $180.2 million to lease two more BD-700 aircraft that would be outfitted with BACN payloads, as well to sustain BD-700 aircraft already deployed to provide CENTCOM with battlefield intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
BACN and several of the other top items on the list are so critical, according to a letter accompanying the document and signed by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, that the service is willing to make trade-offs to get them.
“[W]e would provide offsets to ensure their funding…These urgent operational needs are our highest priorities,” Schwartz wrote in the May 18 letter. “We will work closely with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Congress on a strategy to meet those requirements which could include FY09 and FY10 reprogrammings, or realignment of funds during the enactment process.”
The other top requests include: $78 million for modifications–including anti-jam capability–to EC-130H Compass Call surveillance aircraft; $103.4 million for two Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) satellites to expand CENTCOM’s electro-optical and infra-red battlefield sensing capabilities; and $1 million apiece for 81 Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) system kits to equip HH-60 helicopters with night, low illumination and adverse weather capabilities.
The air service is also requesting $143 million for spare parts and support equipment for the 10 F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter conventional take-off/landing aircraft already budgeted for in the President’s FY ’10 request. “These requirements ensure the delivered aircraft are fully supportable in the field and ensures no unit cost increases for aircraft…would be passed to joint and coalition partners,” the document states.
Other tactical aircraft requests include: $136.3 million for planned F-22 Raptor upgrades; 67.1 million for A-10 modifications, including advanced infrared countermeasures and missile warning systems; and $50 million for five Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar kits for F-15Cs.
The Air Force also wants $120 million to accelerate the purchase of three HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) replacement helicopters and $158 million for the purchase of two CSAR HC-130J aircraft for European Command and African Command. Those commands currently do not have dedicated CSAR HC-130s for aerial refueling, according to the request, and the purchase would “help the Air Force meet the increasing demands for CSAR assets by the COCOMs.”
The service is requesting just over $1.9 billion worth of equipment, including approximately $330 million for two classified line items.