The U.S. Air Force’s $154.3 billion fiscal 2013 budget request — roughly $12 billion less than the service requested in 2012 — includes termination of two aircraft efforts aimed at building partnerships with allies, as well as a new missile outlined for use in stealthy aircraft.
Funding for the next-generation missile was “removed from the budget” owing to “affordability” demands, says Marilyn Thomas, deputy budget director for the Air Force. The weapon, once dubbed the Joint Dual-Role Air Dominance Missile, was intended to merge the functionality of two workhorse weapons: the Raytheon AIM-120 series for medium-range attack (aka, the Amraam series) with that of the anti-radiation HARM missiles designed to destroy air defense sites.
The service has long contended a single weapon is needed to do both of these missions in order to maximize the use of the small weapons bays of the stealthy F-22 and forthcoming F-35 fighter.
The termination will be a blow to industry, which has long hoped for government support in developing next-generation seekers and rocket motors for such a mission. Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and ATK have been eyeing this effort.
Still, missiles encompass roughly 24% of the Air Force’s proposed procurement request. Modest increases are proposed in the production of the Boeing Small-Diameter Bomb (as well as $754 million for development and early production work on the SDB II moving-target variant), Lockheed Martin AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, and Raytheon AIM-9X short-range air-to-air missile. The buy rate for the AIM-120D Amraam, the newest generation of the missile, is projected to dip from 138 in fiscal 2012 to 113 units suggested in the next fiscal year. The Navy, however, proposes to maintain its annual buy of 67 AIM-120Ds.
Meanwhile, the service has also moved to cancel its Light Attack Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) and Light Mobility Aircraft (LIMA) programs, which were intended to use Air Force pilots and aircraft to train partner nations in tactics for these missions. “The Air Force believes that this requirement can be substantially met with innovative application of the Air National Guard State Partnership Programs and Mobility Support Advisory Squadrons,” according to the service’s budget documents.
These were among the changes in the Air Force’s fiscal 2013 budget request, which includes $18.4 billion in procurement and $17.4 billion in research funding — down from $21.4 billion and $17.9 billion, respectively, in the previous fiscal year. Funding in the “Overseas Contingency Operations” request, which sets aside spending associated with wars abroad, is also cut back from $16.8 billion in fiscal 2012 to $14.3 billion.
Meanwhile, the Air Force decreased its planned buy of F-35As from 24 to 19 aircraft for fiscal 2013; this is up one from 18 approved in the fiscal 2012 budget.
The Navy, however, is boosting its buy of F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing versions from three in fiscal 2012 to six in the 2013 request. This increase was made possible by progress from Lockheed Martin and the government program office in tackling a host of F-35B development problems that plagued the flight test effort in 2010. Those problems prompted then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates to put the variant on “probation” pending a turnaround.
The U.S. Navy, meanwhile, is keeping its buy of carrier variants to four aircraft in 2013. This brings the total F-35 procurement request in fiscal 2013 to 29 at $6.15 billion, substantially lower than Lockheed Martin had hoped for early in the program. Research and development is slated to continue at nearly $2.7 billion between the two services in fiscal 2013.
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