F-35 og automatiske budsjettkutt om 14 dagers tid

Sequestration's Effects On Investment Programs Take Shape

By Jen DiMascio jennifer_dimascio@aviationweek.com

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February 12, 2013
Credit: Lockheed Martin

With two weeks to go before $46 billion in cuts to the Pentagon’s fiscal 2013 budget take effect, the military’s top brass appealed to the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Feb. 12 hearing for a delay or replacement for the budget penalty known as sequestration.

And while Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that he is running out of adjectives to describe the horror of sequestration, the hearing did unearth a couple of new details about its effects on investment accounts and fleet sizes.

For example, Adm. Mark Ferguson, the vice chief of naval operations, told Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that the full force of sequestration over 10 years would reduce the Navy’s fleet by two aircraft carrier strike groups and shrink its overall fleet by 50 ships to a total of 220-230.

He told reporters after the hearing that sequestration would also reduce the purchase of E-2 Hawkeye aircraft, P-8 Poseidons and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

The Air Force foresees its Joint Strike Fighter purchase for fiscal 2013 being cut by one or two aircraft, Gen. Mark Welsh told reporters after the hearing. Plus, its research and development accounts would be slashed, prompting delays to the program.

“We would lose $176 million out of the [research, development technology and engineering] account for the F-35, which affects things like the next version of software upgrades, the development of the block 4 aircraft with the proper software,” Welsh says. “All that would be slid.”

Funding the Air Force with a continuing resolution that draws on fiscal 2012 funding could cause problems for the service, particularly with programs like the KC-46A tanker, because funding is expected to ramp up in fiscal 2013. Welsh indicated, however, that the Air Force may be able to work around that hurdle in the short run.