April 6, 2009 -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates today said he is recommending the termination of a handful of the Air Force's largest acquisition programs, including the F-22A fifth-generation fighter and C-17 cargo hauler.
Gates also said the Defense Department will not continue the combat search-and-rescue helicopter and Transformational Satellite competitions or the development of a 2018 Next-Generation Bomber.
The cuts to these major Air Force aircraft programs could deliver a major blow to defense giants Lockheed Martin -- which builds the F-22A -- and Boeing -- which builds the C-17 and part of the Raptor. The two companies are partners on the 2018 bomber program and rivals in the TSAT competition. Lockheed, Boeing and Sikorsky all were involved in a three-way competition for the CSAR-X helicopter contract.
The Pentagon will ask for four F-22As in the FY-09 war supplemental spending bill in the coming weeks, opting to end production at 187 aircraft. C-17 production would get capped at 205 aircraft, according to Gates’ plan, which he will advance to the White House.
“For me it was not a close call,” Gates said of the F-22A recommendation during a briefing at the Pentagon. “The military advice that I got was there was not a military requirement for numbers of F-22s beyond the 187.”
When pressed, Gates said even advice he received from the Air Force -- which has long planned for more Raptors -- indicated no military need for more.
For months, sources have said the service was planning to ask to buy more Raptors. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the Air Force would like to buy 243 F-22As -- an additional 60 aircraft.
On the CSAR-X cancellation, Gates said the Pentagon “will look at whether there is a requirement for a specialized search-and-rescue aircraft along the lines that the Air Force had in mind . . . and whether it should be a joint capability.”
“This program has a troubled acquisition history and raises the fundamental question of whether this important mission can only be accomplished by yet another single service solution with single purpose aircraft,” Gates said. “We will take a fresh look at the requirement behind this program and develop a more sustainable approach.”
Gates' comments suggested that the DOD will look at whether a specialized rescue aircraft is needed rather than a modified version of a cross-service helicopter. The current CSAR platform -- the HH-60 Pave Hawk -- is a rescue version of the ubiquitous UH-60 Blackhawk first developed for the Army in the late 1970s.
Variants of the Blackhawk are flown by each military service doing everything from flying as special operations gunships and troop transports in the Army, to flying search-and-rescue missions in the Air Force, Navy, Army and Coast Guard and even serving as Marine One presidential helicopters.
The response to Gates' comments from three competitors vying for the CSAR-X contract was measured.
“We will be studying Secretary Gates' announcement for the potential impact to Boeing,” a spokesman said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the men and women of The Boeing Company will continue to perform at the highest possible level to deliver the best value to the warfighter and the taxpayer. Boeing officials had no advance warning of the program's cancellation.”
Boeing won the last round of competition for the helicopter, but that decision was overturned by the Government Accountability Office after the competitors filed a protest in February 2007.
Lockheed's response was just as measured. The Bethesda, MD-based company was offering a variant of Augusta Westland's European-made AW-101 helicopter as its entry into the CSAR-X competition. The company suffered another loss today when Gates announced that he was cutting the embattled Presidential Helicopter replacement program which features another version of this helicopter, the VH-71.
“We're assessing the impact of [the secretary's] decisions on all affected programs,” the company said in a statement. “As we move forward with the budget process, Lockheed Martin will continue to support our customers and work to deliver affordable solutions that meet their strategic and operational needs.”
Meanwhile, Sikorsky -- maker of the Air Force's current CSAR bird -- expressed limited optimism in the secretary's announcement.
“After many years of work on this campaign, we're disappointed but certainly understand the current strategic and economic realities,” an April 6 e-mail from company spokesman Paul Jackson states. “If the Pentagon determines that it wants to proceed, we will continue to put forward the best solution for both the taxpayer and our airmen. In the meantime, Sikorsky's Pave Hawk helicopters continue to serve the Air Force well in this mission, and we are prepared to provide any and all additional support the Air Force may require.”
At the same time, the Pentagon will look toward accelerating Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter production, buying 513 fifth-generation fighters over the next five years. The FY-10 budget request will include funding 30 F-35s. In all, the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps plan to buy 2,443 JSF aircraft.
“We have taken a more cautious approach to the ramping up of production over the course of the next five years,” Gates said of the planned 513-aircraft buy. “That's actually . . . several dozen aircraft fewer than the original planned buy.
“We have tried to do this at a level that the cost to our allies and partners in this program do not go up,” he continued. “We are very mindful of the risk of rushing too fast to large-scale production.”
Part of the production increase will allow DOD to buy more test aircraft, according to Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, who appeared today with Gates. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, said in a statement he concurred with all of Gates’ recommendations.
The Pentagon will maintain the Air Force's aerial refueling tanker acquisition program schedule and will solicit bids this summer, Gates said, while noting he is still in favor of a winner-take-all strategy in the competition.
Over the past few weeks, House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-PA) has been floating the idea of buying tankers built by both Boeing and Northrop Grumman-EADS. Gates said he has talked with Murtha about the mixed-buy plan, but still believes “it is not the best deal for the taxpayer.”
“The only reason people are pursuing the idea of a split buy is that they think it's the only way that we can move forward in getting any kind of a tanker,” he said.
“If we do this right, there's no reason a protest would be upheld and we could move forward with an approach that is the best deal for the taxpayer and also the best deal for the Air Force,” he said, noting the service would not have to maintain dual logistics, maintenance and training systems associated with two aircraft.
Gates also said he is open to accelerating purchases of KC-X aircraft in an effort to retire the service's Eisenhower-era KC-135 tankers.
“I would be very happy to look at accelerating the build,” he said.
In addition, the FY-10 budget proposes the retirement of 250 of the Air Force's oldest fourth-generation fighter jets. In October, Inside the Air Force reported that the Pentagon was considering retiring more than 300 F-15s, F-16s and A-10s in an attempt to find $3.4 billion to bolster other combat aircraft programs, munitions inventories, ISR and manpower efforts. -- Marcus Weisgerber and John Reed
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