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Will The Air Force B-21 Raider Bring New, Next-Generation Stealth Technology? How Much Detail Should be Public ?

The new bomber is being engineered with improved stealthy technology able to evade the most advanced air defenses in the world. The Pentagon Inspector General is investigating what should remain secret and what should be discussed in public.

Secrecy and classification parameters of Air Forces' new "in-early-development" next-generation B-21 Raider stealth bomber will be analyzed by the Pentagon's Inspector General to investigate just how many details, strategies and technological advances related to the emerging platform should be highly classified.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

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When

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’s X-35 beat the

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X-32 to win the trillion-dollar Joint Strike Fighter program in 2001, Boeing might have thought its days in the fighter business were numbered. Sixteen years later, Boeing’s

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and

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programs appear to have survived the stealth craze of the past two decades that threatened to render them obsolete in the fighter market.

As Lockheed’s

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Lightning II and now-terminated

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Raptor languished in overcost and overschedule development programs, Boeing capitalized, rolling newer and more advanced mission systems, sensors and weaponry into new versions of its Eagle, Super Hornet and Growler platforms, which the company says make them competitive with so-called fifth-generation warplanes.

By applying “iterative innovation,” the same technology-insertion tactic that will keep its

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Chinook and AH-64 Apache rotorcraft flying through 2060, the company has secured a future for its fighter production lines into the early-2020s, and probably beyond. The aircraft themselves will be in operation past 2040.

The U.S. Navy already has all the Super Hornets it originally intended to buy, but new threats and force requirements could prompt it to buy as many as 120 additional F/A-18s, while transitioning to Boeing’s Block 3 model beyond fiscal 2019. Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force has more than $12 billion earmarked for C-model Eagle and E-model Strike Eagle upgrades through 2025, not including the $5 billion already spent by Boeing and its international customers on F-15 improvements over the past 6-7 years.

Boeing believes it now possesses aircraft that can match or exceed the F-35 and F-22 technologically, not counting the superior low-observable designs of the F-22 and F-35. Many of the advanced sensors and weapon systems being introduced on the F/A-18 and F-15 will not be rolled into the F-35 until Block 4 in the 2020s.

Despite the lack of the low-observable shape and antennas needed for all-aspect stealth on the aircraft, “when the door is knocked down, you want the range, firepower and connectivity that we can provide,” Boeing says. The company says it would need to put “new wrappers” on the F/A-18 and F-15, something that Boeing Phantom Works appears to be doing, which would make them as competitive against integrated air defense systems in a high-end conflict as the Lockheed F-22 and F-35. But for almost all other combat scenarios, including air-to-air, air-to-ground and counter-sea missions, the “Advanced F-15” and “Advanced F/A-18” are ideal.

“For an in-production air-superiority aircraft, nothing compares to an F-15 today,” says Steve Parker, Boeing Military Aircraft vice president of F-15 programs. “Nothing flies faster, nothing goes higher, nothing carries more,” he adds.

The company has dropped its former “Silent Eagle” concept, in which weapons would be carried internally to reduce the aircraft’s radar signature. Boeing asserts that potential adversaries have caught up with stealth technology by switching frequencies; introducing more powerful active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars with faster computer processors; and installing new long-range, wider-search infrared search-and-track pods.

Almost every proposed Silent Eagle capability, barring the conformal internal weapons bays, have been carried forward into the advanced Eagle configurations being delivered to Saudi Arabia (F-15SA), proposed to Qatar (F-15QA) and considered by Israel.

The U.S. Air Force upgrades will provide what Boeing claims to be the world’s fastest military aircraft mission computer (the Advanced Display Core Processor II) and most powerful electronic-warfare suite (

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’ Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System).

The company has dropped its former “Silent Eagle” concept, in which weapons would be carried internally to reduce the aircraft’s radar signature. Boeing asserts that potential adversaries have caught up with stealth technology by switching frequencies; introducing more powerful active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars with faster computer processors; and installing new long-range, wider-search infrared search-and-track pods.

Almost every proposed Silent Eagle capability, barring the conformal internal weapons bays, have been carried forward into the advanced Eagle configurations being delivered to Saudi Arabia (F-15SA), proposed to Qatar (F-15QA) and considered by Israel.

The U.S. Air Force upgrades will provide what Boeing claims to be the world’s fastest military aircraft mission computer (the Advanced Display Core Processor II) and most powerful electronic-warfare suite (

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’ Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System).

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Boeing has already installed the new

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APG-63(V)3 AESA radar on 125 of approximately 200 air-superiority F-15C Eagles and is gearing up to install the Raytheon APG-82(V)1 on another 200 or so F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bombers. The U.S.’s F-15 technology road map is valued at more than $12 billion through 2025.

The newest single- and tandem-seat Eagles Boeing builds today have fly-by-wire flight controls that allow weapon stations No. 1 and No. 9 to be activated, increasing the number of weapons or sensors carried per sorties. With the new Advanced Missile Bomb Ejector Rack, the Eagle’s missile carriage will be expanded to 22 missiles per sortie from 16.

Both front and back seats have Digital Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing Systems, and future versions will come with the improved wide-area display cockpit and low-profile head-up display Boeing has been developing with its suppliers. Today’s F-15s are powered by twin

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F110-129 turbofans, the engine chosen by Saudi Arabia. The aircraft is also compatible with GE’s more powerful F110-132, which powers the United Arab Emirates’ Lockheed F-16E/F Block 60 fighters. “We’re engine-agnostic,” Parker says.

One of the most significant changes to the Eagle is its airframe design life. The Eagles the U.S. flies today are rated to 9,000 flight hours, whereas the Advanced F-15’s wing and fuselage have been strengthened to achieve 20,000 hr.

“It’s a different animal today,” Parker says. “It looks kind of the same, but it is very, very different. We have a road map that takes the F-15 out into the 2040 time frame.”

One or two years ago, Boeing had few prospects for new production of the F-15 and F/A-18 in St. Louis, but that has changed.

Boeing says current orders continue F-15 production through 2019; near-term deals would push production into the late-2022 time frame; and “we also have potential opportunities we are working now that would take the production line just past the mid-2020s,” Parker says. Boeing has all but secured a deal for “up to 72” Qatari F-15QAs, and another customer in the region, likely Israel, is considering a sizable order.

Boeing hasn’t delivered new Strike Eagles to the U.S. military since the mid-2000s, but Parker would welcome new orders to boost fighter capacity. So far, the Air Force is not interested in new F-15s, but it does have plans to replace the F-15C with a sixth-generation aircraft, termed Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA). Parker anticipates continued investment in the F-15C until the PCA aircraft is developed and delivered in the numbers required. Structural upgrades will keep the 1970s bird flying into the 2030s, he says.

On the F/A-18 side, the Navy has decided to keep buying Super Hornets alongside the F-35C to meet an immediate need for greater numbers of strike fighters. The service’s program of record was 563 aircraft, but now Boeing sees opportunities for significant follow-on orders. All aircraft delivered after fiscal 2019, for domestic and international customers, will be Block 3 versions.

Kuwait has been approved to buy “up to 40” F/A-18E/Fs, and Canada is considering an “interim fleet” of about 18 aircraft to bolster its outdated CF-18 Hornet force. The Canadian deal could fall through, depending on how hard Boeing pushes its trade dispute with Canada over government subsidies to Montreal-based

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on the commercial aircraft market. The Super Hornet is also being promoted to India, Finland and could compete for Canada’s larger CF-18 replacement. Boeing recently lost to Lockheed’s F-35 in Denmark.

Larry Burt, Boeing’s director of global sales and marketing for global strike programs, says near-term opportunities would take F/A-18 production through to the mid-2020s. The company needs to build about 24 Super Hornets per year for production to remain viable.

As different as the Block 3 version of the Super Hornet is from its predecessors, Boeing is already looking at capabilities for Block 4.

“We’re not trying to be the F-35; you don’t need a fifth-gen for all missions,” he says. However, he adds that it is easier to evolve and enhance the F/A-18 and F-15 airframes than low-observable platforms, like the F-35.

“You could keep evolving the mission systems, sensors and capability of the Super Hornet and maybe eventually put a new wrapper on it,” Burt says.

The Growler is a story of “incremental innovation” for Boeing. The Navy has almost doubled its original program of record to about 160 Growlers from 88.

The service is now moving forward with planned upgrades that will keep the aircraft relevant into the 2040s. The centerpiece of the “Advanced Growler” is

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’s Next-Generation Jammer, which passed a critical design review in April. A complementary feature is improvements to the Growler’s integrated ALQ-218 radar warning, electronic support and electronic intelligence system, also produced by Northrop.

Boeing says it is still in contract negotiations with the U.S. Navy to pull all of the planned Growler upgrades into a single service-life upgrade program, which will include an extension of the aircraft’s structural service life from 6,000 to 9,000 hr. Boeing is also pushing the GE F414 Enhanced Engine for the Growler and Super Hornet, which would provide 18% more power.

Australia is the only other operator of the Growler platform, and it is already positioning to acquire the Next-Generation Jammer.

The potential Super Hornet deals with Canada and Kuwait do not include Growlers, Boeing confirms.

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The Republican also admitted in an exclusive interview with 7.30 that President Donald Trump sometimes made him "nervous".

During a visit to Canberra, Senator McCain said Mr Putin was the "premier and most important threat, more so than ISIS".

"I think ISIS can do terrible things. But it's the Russians who tried to destroy the fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election," he said.

"I've seen no evidence they succeeded, but they tried and they are still trying to change elections.

"They just tried to affect the outcome of the French election. So I view Vladimir Putin — who has dismembered Ukraine, a sovereign nation, who is putting pressure on the Baltics — I view the Russians as the far greatest challenge that we have."

He said the US needed to respond to Russia with sanctions.

"We have done nothing since the election last November to respond to Vladimir Putin's attempt to change the outcome of our elections. So, way to go Vladimir. We haven't responded at all," he said.

"Hopefully when we get back from recess the Senate will enact sanctions on Russia."

Here's some of his thoughts on other topics:

Nervous about Trump
Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.

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When it was put to him that some people feel nervous about international security with Mr Trump as President, Senator McCain said he understood why.

"I am nervous from time to time," he said. "I do believe that the President has great confidence in the national security team. I do believe most of the time that he accepts their advice and counsel.

"Can I tell you that he does [that] all the time? No. Does it bother me? Yes, it bothers me.

"I don't think there's any doubt that this FBI issue and the whole issue of the Russians, it's a scandal of significant proportions and it's going to be with us for quite a while.

"I hope we can separate that issue and all its ramifications from the need for us to win in Mosul, to win in Afghanistan, win in Raqqa and beat back this threat to our nations' national security, which we just saw a manifestation of the problem in Manchester."

Kushner allegations

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On allegations that White House adviser

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, Mr McCain said: "I don't like it, I just don't."

"I know some administration officials are saying this is standard procedure. I don't think it's standard procedure prior to the inauguration of the President of the United States by someone who is not in an appointed position.

"And I think Mr [James] Comey (the former FBI director) we now know took action that he did in regards to then-candidate Clinton in regards to false news that was being put out by the Russians.

"This is becoming more and more bizarre, in fact you can't make it up."

Paris agreement

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With

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at last week's G7 meeting in Italy, some European leaders are concerned the US will pull out.

"I think the Europeans are legitimately concerned," Senator McCain said.

"I'd also point out that Barack Obama made that agreement without an agreement from the Congress of the US, which then allows this President to revoke it.

"Barack Obama made a major, major commitment without consultation with the Congress of the United States."

North Korea threat
Senator McCain also said North Korea had the potential to become a "very serious crisis along the lines of the Cuban missile crisis, unless we do everything we can to restrain North Korean behaviour".

"The key is China. China can restrain North Korean behaviour," he said.

"I don't think it's acceptable for the United States of America to have an intercontinental ballistic missile — or a missile aimed at Australia — with a nuclear weapon on it, and depend on our ability to counter it with an anti-missile capability."

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Blackstone said:

Why do I get the feeling McCain wouldn't be happy until we're at war with everyone not allied with us?

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US Accelerates Upgrades for its Arsenal of Nuclear-Armed, Submarine-Launched Trident II D5s

SCOUT WARRIOR
Yesterday at 10:32 PM

Nuclear-Armed Trident II D5 missiles rest in 44-foot long missile tubes built into ballistic missile submarines quietly patrolling the undersea domain - to ensure security and peace.

The Navy is beginning the process of evaluating additional upgrades and technical adjustments to the sub-launched Trident II D5 nuclear weapon such that it can serve for decades well beyond its current service life extending to 2040.

The Navy has already been working on technical upgrades to the existing Trident II D5 in order to prevent obsolescence and ensure the missile system remains viable for the next several decades.

The US Navy is accelerating upgrades to the nuclear warhead for its arsenal of Trident II D5 nuclear-armed submarine launched missiles -- massively destructive weapons designed to keep international peace by ensuring and undersea-fired second-strike ability in the event of a catastrophic nuclear first strike on the US.

Navy Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, director of Navy Strategic Systems Programs, told lawmakers about a long-term sustainment of the triad’s sea-based leg.

“While our current life-extension efforts will sustain the D-5 [Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile] system until the 2040s, the Navy is already beginning to evaluate options to maintain a credible and effective strategic weapon system to the end of the Columbia class service life in the 2080s,” Benedict said.

The Navy has modified an existing deal with Charles Stark Draper Laboratory has to continue work on the missile's MK 6 guidance system, an agreement to continue specific work on the weapon's electronic modules. The modification awards $59 million to the firm, a DoD statement said.

As part of the technical improvements to the missile, the Navy is upgrading what’s called the Mk-4 re-entry body, the part of the missile that houses a thermonuclear warhead. The life extension for the Mk-4 re-entry body includes efforts to replace components including the firing circuit, Navy officials explained.

Navy and industry engineers have been modernizing the guidance system by replacing two key components due to obsolescence – the inertial measurement unit and the electronics assembly, developers said.

The Navy is also working with the Air Force on refurbishing the Mk-5 re-entry body which will be ready by 2019, senior Navy officials said.

Navy officials said the Mk-5 re-entry body has more yield than a Mk-4 re-entry body, adding that more detail on the differences was not publically available.

The missile also has a larger structure called a release assembly which houses and releases the re-entry bodies, Navy officials said. There is an ongoing effort to engineer a new release assembly that will work with either the Mk-4 or Mk-5 re-entry body.

The Trident II D5, first fired in the 1990s, is an upgraded version of the 1970s-era Trident I nuclear weapon; the Trident II D5s were initially engineered to serve until 2027, however an ongoing series of upgrades are now working to extend its service life.

The Navy is modernizing its arsenal of Trident II D5 nuclear missiles in order to ensure their service life can extend for 25 more years aboard the Navy’s nuclear ballistic missile submarine fleet, service leaders said.

The 44-foot long submarine-launched missiles have been serving on Ohio-class submarines for 25 years,service leaders explained.

The missiles are also being planned as the baseline weapon for the Ohio Replacement Program ballistic missile submarine, a platform slated to serve well into the 2080s, so the Navy wants to extend the service life of the Trident II D5 missiles to ensure mission success in future decades.

Under the U.S.-Russia New START treaty signed in 2010, roughly 70-percent of the U.S.’ nuclear warheads will be deployed on submarines.

Within the last several years, the Navy has acquired an additional 108 Trident II D 5 missiles in order to strengthen the inventory for testing and further technological development.

Trident II D5 Test

Firing from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida last year, a specially configured non-armed “test” version of the missile was fired from the Navy’s USS Maryland. This was the 161st successful Trident II launch since design completion in 1989, industry officials said.

The missile was converted into a test configuration using a test missile kit produced by Lockheed Martin that contains range safety devices, tracking systems and flight telemetry instrumentation, a Lockheed statement said.

The Trident II D5 missile is deployed aboard U.S. Navy Ohio-class submarines and Royal Navy Vanguard-class to deter nuclear aggression. The three-stage ballistic missile can travel a nominal range of 4,000 nautical miles and carry multiple independently targeted reentry bodies.

The U.S. and UK are collaboratively working on a common missile compartment for their next generation SSBNs, or ballistic missile submarines.

The 130,000-pound Trident II D5 missile can travel 20,000-feet per second, according to Navy figures. The missiles cost $30 million each.

The "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" futher describes the weapon -- "The Trident D5s carry three types of warheads: the 100-kiloton W76/Mk-4, the 100-kiloton W76-1/Mk-4A, and the 455-kiloton W88/Mk-5 warhead, the highest-yield ballistic missile warhead in the U.S. arsenal."

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Air Force Advances Future Plans for the A-10

SCOUT WARRIOR
Yesterday at 10:15 PM

The Air Force A-10 replacement strategy could involve building a new plane, adjusting an existing aircraft or merely upgrading the A-10 itself.

The Air Force is beginning to work on how fast, lethal, durable and capable a new “A-10”-like aircraft would need to be in order to provide U.S. military ground troops with effective close-air support for decades to come.

Senior service officials are now exploring “draft requirements” concepts – and evaluating the kind of avionics, engineering, weapons, armor and technical redundancy the aircraft would need, Air Force officials told Scout Warrior.

Many of the core technical attributes and combat advantages of the A-10 will be preserved and expanded upon with the new effort, officials said.

The performance of the A-10 Warthog in the ongoing bombing campaign against ISIS, coupled with the Air Forces’ subsequent decision to delay the aircraft’s planned retirement – has led the service to begin the process of developing a new, longer-term A-10 type platform.

Following an announcement from Pentagon leaders that the A-10 will not begin retiring but rather will serve until at least 2022, Air Force and DoD officials are now hoping to keep a close-air-support aircraft for many years beyond the previously projected timeframe.

Given the emerging global threat environment, it would make sense that the Air Force would seek to preserve an aircraft such as the A-10. While the aircraft has been extremely successful attacking ISIS targets such as fuel convoys and other assets, the A-10 is also the kind of plane that can carry and deliver a wide-ranging arsenal of bombs to include larger laser-guided and precision weapons.

This kind of firepower, coupled with its 30mm cannon, titantium armor plates and built-in redundancy for close-air-support, makes the A-10 a valuable platform for potential larger-scale mechanized, force-on-force type warfare as well. The A-10 has a unique and valuable niche role to perform in the widest possible range of combat scenarios to include counterinsurgency, supporting troops on the ground in close proximity and bringing firepower, protection and infantry support to a large-scale war.

Air Force officials have told Scout Warrior that the current approach involves a three-pronged effort; the Air Force may consider simply upgrading the existing fleet of A-10s in a substantial way in order to extend its service life, acquire an off-the-shelf existing aircraft or develop a new close air support platform through a developmental effort.

“We are developing that draft requirements document. We are staffing it around the Air Force now. When it's ready, then we will compare that to what we have available, compare it to keeping the A-10, compare it to what it would take to replace it with another airplane, and we will work through that process,” Lt. Gen. James Holmes, Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Requirements, told reporters last year.

Holmes went on to explain that the service was, broadly speaking, exploring ways to achieve, preserve and sustain “air superiority” in potential long-term, high-end combat engagements. He added that considerations about a close-air-support replacement aircraft figured prominently in the strategic calculus surrounding these issues.

As a result, the Air Force will be looking for the “optimal” type of close-air-support platform by weighing various considerations such as what the differences might be between existing aircraft and future developmental platforms.

Cost and affordability will also be a very large part of the equation when it comes to making determinations about an A-10 replacement, Holmes explained.

“The question is exactly where is the sweet spot as we talked about between what's available now and what the optimum CAS replacement would be. We are working along that continuum to see exactly what the requirement is that we can afford and the numbers that we need to be able to do the mission,” Holmes added.

Several industry platforms, such as Raytheon’s T-X plane and the A-29 Embraer EMB Super Tucano aircraft, are among options being looked at as things which could potentially be configured for a close-air-support plane.

Having the requisite funds to support this would be of great value to the Air Force; Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told lawmakers that, despite the prior plan, the service did not want to retire the A-10.

Prior plans to retire the fleet of A-10s were purely budget driven, senior Air Force leaders have consistently said.

“I don’t want to retire it,” Welsh told a Congressional Committee in early March of last year.

Air Force leaders had previously said that the emerging multi-role F-35 would be able to pick up the close-air-support mission. With its sensor technology, 25mm gun and maneuverability, there is little question about whether the F-35 could succeed with these kinds of missions. At the same time, there is also consensus that the A-10 provides an extremely unique set of battlefield attributes which need to be preserved for decades.

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Jura said:

real world Fear of DoD struggles grow, amid vacancy levels not seen for 50 years

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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis finally has a financial officer to fill the comptroller’s spot at the Pentagon, but dozens of political appointee slots remain vacant four months into the administration of President Donald Trump.

The Senate on Thursday confirmed David Norquist, the former chief financial officer for the Department of Homeland Security and the brother of anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, as comptroller.

In his confirmation hearings, Norquist, a former partner at financial services contractor Kearney & Co. in Virginia, pledged to finally get an audit going at the Defense Department, which has never had one.

“Everything you have heard about the size and complexity of the department is true,” Norquist said, “but that is not a reason to delay the audit. That is a reason to begin.”

By unanimous consent, the Senate also confirmed Robert Story Karem as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs and Kari Bingen as principal deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence.

Bingen has served in several congressional staff positions, and most recently was policy director for the House Armed Services Committee. Karem has worked as a Middle East adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney and a legislative aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).

Three more nominees — Elaine McCusker to be deputy comptroller; Robert Daigle to be director of the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office; and Kenneth Rapuano for assistant secretary of defense for homeland and global security — have been approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee but still await a vote by the full Senate.

The Pentagon has more than 50 slots for political nominations by Trump requiring Senate confirmation. The confirmations of Norquist, Karem and Bingen appears to bring the total number of political appointments at DoD thus far to five, counting Mattis and new

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Secretary Heather Wilson.

The posts of

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secretary and

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secretary remain open, and the No. 2 position at the Pentagon is still held by Deputy Secretary Bob Work, an Obama administration holdover.

Boeing executive Patrick Shanahan has been named by Mattis to replace Work, but he has yet to be formally nominated by the White House more than two months after his name was announced. Work had expected to leave the post this month.

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Jura said:

now I read
Trump budget fails to live up to ‘historic’ defense promises, analysts say

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"While the budget request features $54 billion for defense above the Budget Control Act (BCA) caps in place for FY18, that’s only $19 billion more than was planned for this year by the Obama administration." so just the link here

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After more than a year of talk from Navy and Marine Corps aviation leaders about needing to fund “aviation enablers” to boost readiness, the Fiscal Year 2018 budget request shows exactly the investments that are needed to get more planes ready to fly.

A number of conditions have led to naval aviators having a shortfall of ready-to-fly aircraft – everything from a backlog at maintenance depots, to not enough contractor support, to a lack of spare parts – and no amount of investment in flying hours accounts will help the aviation readiness issue unless these enabler accounts are properly funded as well, leaders have said. Some of these enablers are seeing historic levels of funding in the 2018 request, a sign of the seriousness of the Navy and Marine Corps’ effort to dig out of this readiness hole.

Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps for Aviation Lt. Gen. Jon Davis has said many times that the service couldn’t reduce its “not mission capable- supply” rates – when aircraft cannot be fixed due to lack of spare parts,

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– if it didn’t increase spending on spares. This spring he told lawmakers that the lack of spares was “the number-one readiness degrader” aside from the sheer age of some of the aircraft.

In the 2018 request, “the Marine Corps has increased funding for spares to $606 million – 93 percent of the total Marine Corps requirement,” Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Burns told USNI News this week.
“Increased funding for spare parts will not impact readiness for 18 to 24 months,” she added, but without this investment the readiness trajectory would never change.

For the Department of the Navy as a whole, spares are funded at 91 percent of the requirement, which is a 14-year high.

For comparison, in March Davis testified to lawmakers and said that the 2017 budget request only funded spares at two-thirds of the service’s need, though the supplemental spending request that the administration released earlier that month would have boosted spares funding.

“We’re funded at about 67 percent of our spares requirements in ’17. Some of that additional money in ’17 (in the supplemental request) would go to get us up to the max executable amount of spare parts, certainly for the Marine Corps, 88 percent – as much money as I can spend in ’17 – to go get those spare parts,” he said. At the time he wouldn’t talk about the upcoming 2018 request, but he said “I think you’ll see a very different profile from the United States Marine Corps as far as what we’re doing for our enabler accounts.”

Outside of the day-in, day-out maintenance that takes place at the squadrons, some types of aircraft make use of performance-based logistics contracts with industry and others’ readiness is the responsibility of the military. Both strategies are addressed through increased funding in the 2018 request.

For aircraft types with PBL contracts with industry – the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, KC-130J Hercules and MV-22 Osprey among them – the Navy and Marine Corps made a historic investment: $826.6 million for the aviation logistics account, compared to about $661 million in 2017.

“The aviation logistics support has increased six percent to a high of 87 percent of the requirement. These logistics contracts for the F-35, KC-130, MV-22 and E-6B are funded at an all-time high, and we anticipate future growth as more F-35s enter the fleet,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget Rear Adm. Brian Luther told reporters during a May 23 budget briefing.

Other types of aircraft are kept ready through Navy- and Marine Corps-led maintenance efforts at Fleet Readiness Centers, with the services responsible for their own engineering, logistics and supplies associated with repairs and overhauls. For those aircraft, more money is on the way too.

“Aircraft depot maintenance is funded to capacity, which is 89 percent of the requirement. This is an increase from last year where we funded the air depot maintenance to 85 percent.,” Luther said in his briefing.
“Capacity is limited for different reasons at our fleet readiness centers. Some are limited by the hiring of civilian personnel, others by physical space and aging tools and materials. In all cases, we are investing to correct these limitations.

“Aviation support, primarily program-related engineering and logistics, is funded higher than ’17, but not to a hundred percent.,” Luther added.
“This account also funds critical chain initiatives to improve depot throughput and increase hiring of planning, engineering and maintenance support manpower to align the workforce to the projected workload.”

As a result of the additional aviation enabler spending, the services should be able to fly more.

“The FY ‘18 budget calls for $8.6 billion for flying hour operations for Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, compared with $7.5 billion in FY ‘17. This increase equates to more than 100,000 flight hours across all models,” Burns told USNI News.

Overall, the Navy and Marine Corps requested $11.1 billion for air operations, compared to $9.9 billion in 2017.

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