By Marina Malenic
Seeking a 3 percent average annual real growth rate in its funding for high-end aircraft between FY 2011-2020, the Defense Department is planning to spend $268 billion on new fighter, surveillance, tanker and other fixed-wing aircraft, according to documents obtained by Defense Daily.
Along with the president’s proposed Fiscal Year 2011 budget, the Pentagon yesterday submitted to Congress its long-term plan for procurement of fixed-wing aircraft.
“Annual procurement levels will grow steadily through the mid-teens, fueled in particular by fighter, [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance/Command-and-Control] ISR/C2 platforms, and tanker purchases,” the document states.
Although the department plans to also spend “considerable sums” on modernizing legacy cargo and bomber aircraft, no new procurement of aircraft in these categories is planned through 2020, according to the document. In the 2020s, “the priority will likely shift to buying long-range strike and strategic lift aircraft,” it states.
Further, the number of ISR aircraft in the department’s inventory–platforms such as Global Hawk, Reaper, and Predator-class systems–will grow from approximately 300 in FY 2011 to more than 800 in FY 2020, according to the 30-year plan. The Air Force, for example, will procure 39 RQ-4 Global Hawks through 2018. “This nearly 200 percent capacity increase will be effectively multiplied by capability improvements afforded by the acquisition of vastly improved sensors and the replacement of Air Force Predators with more capable Reapers,” the plan states.
Meanwhile, both the Air Force and Navy are planning to recapitalize their intratheater lift inventories. The Air Force also continues to modernize its strategic lift inventory, which is projected to remain viable through the years covered by the plan. The document also restates Air Force plans to develop and purchase 109 new KC-X tanker aircraft by 2020.
In the fighter category, the department’s fifth-generation assets are expected to grow from about 7 percent of the current force of manned fighter/attack aircraft to about 34 percent by FY 2020. Most of that increase will come with anticipated Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) purchases. However, the plan also notes that the Pentagon is evaluating “mixes of manned and unmanned aircraft, with varying stealth characteristics, and advanced standoff weapons” for its future fighter/attack inventory. Over the next 10 years, the Air Force also plans to spend $1.9 billion on modernization of the F-22 Raptor. In the aggregate, the fighter/attack inventory is expected to decline by 10 percent over FY ’11-’20.
The plan also says that the current fleet of Air Force bombers will remain relevant via upgrades through FY 2040. It states that a study is underway to identify “the right mix of manned and unmanned technologies that will provide future long-range strike capabilities and to determine the right balance between range, payload, speed, stealth, and onboard sensors.” Although the characteristics of the next generation bomber have not yet been determined, according to the document, one option under consideration is a “survivable, penetrating aircraft with better stealth capabilities than current aircraft have, possibly incorporating advanced sensors of the type previously reserved for ISR aircraft.”
The plan anticipates that these purchasing decisions will affect “specific corporate interests in certain sectors,” but it also states that the government has “no immediate concerns about the robustness of the American aviation industrial base.”