{"id":42761,"date":"2016-01-20T23:13:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T23:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2016\/01\/20\/commentary-essential-capability-smart-acquisition-priority-investment\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:19:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:19:49","slug":"commentary-essential-capability-smart-acquisition-priority-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2016\/01\/20\/commentary-essential-capability-smart-acquisition-priority-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Essential Capability, Smart Acquisition, Priority Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span class=\"rte rte-comment\">This past October, <\/span>The US Air Force&#8217;s award of\u00a0\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">awarded a major contract for <\/span>its new Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) to <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">the <\/span>Northrop Grumman <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">. Corporation.\u00a0 This award <\/span>was important for many reasons: It gives the country an advanced military capability in a vital area; it demonstrates\u00a0the Air Force has learned well from past acquisition missteps; and\u00a0it suggests guidance for the prioritization of finite aerospace budgets.\u00a0 Allow me to elaborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ability of the US Air Force to conduct, on short notice, long-range precision strike with a heavy bomber is a major American core competency no other nation possesses.\u00a0However, conducting such missions in the future requires highly sophisticated aircraft capable of penetrating elaborate and increasingly integrated enemy air defense networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, the aging US\u00a0bomber inventory is not capable of meeting this enduring and long-term challenge. The workhorse B-52 bomber first entered service in the 1950s, and the B-1 reached its initial operating capability in the 1980s.\u00a0The 20 <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">twenty <\/span>stealthy B-2s, the only bombers capable of penetrating these defenses, are nearly a quarter-century old.\u00a0This US\u00a0bomber fleet is too few in numbers, too short in capability\u00a0and too long in the tooth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an increasingly complicated and troubled international environment, including the expanded military capabilities and aggressive behavior of China, Iran\u00a0and Russia, the US needs to reinforce its deterrence and defense strategies with <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">enhanced <\/span>credible global strike capability.\u00a0Doing so, particularly for &#8220;first-night&#8221; operations intended to defeat enemy air defenses and their sophisticated radar systems, requires stealth aircraft with large payloads and long ranges \u2014 hence, the operational necessity for the LRS-B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Planning for multiple far-flung, possibly simultaneous, contingencies, the Air Force decided it needed about 100 new bomber aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To meet that goal, the Air Force has worked diligently for the past four years to get this acquisition right.\u00a0 It has taken numerous steps to avoid repeating mistakes seen in its failure to procure the needed number of F-22 fighters, and in its attempt to field a new tanker aircraft, which resulted in a protested and overturned award \u2014 delaying the program for several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This time, the Air Force has seemingly gone to great lengths to ensure the requirements for the LRS-B were thoroughly developed, vetted\u00a0and well understood.\u00a0In the past decade, a failure to stabilize initial requirements,\u00a0both the technical capability of the systems and the numbers required,\u00a0resulted in the cancellation of several programs, caused disturbing cost growth in some\u00a0and contributed to long schedule delays in others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To increase the odds of a successful acquisition approach attached to reasonable and achievable requirements, the Air Force used its Rapid Capabilities Office to ensure that technologies and systems applicable to planned LRS-B missions were identified and evaluated.\u00a0This effort increased the use of mature technologies, thereby reducing overall program risks. Experience shows that increased risks nearly always lead to increased costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for the costs, several organizations, including the Air Force&#8217;s Cost Analysis Agency and the Defense Department&#8217;s Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), used established parametric analysis techniques to validate the cost of the initial phase of the program and the projected average procurement cost\u00a0for each aircraft. Keeping those costs within bounds will be essential to acquiring the number of LRS-Bs the nation needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, prioritization matters. The cost and value of the LRS-B will be weighed against other major Air Force acquisitions now in play or planned:\u00a0the KC-46 tanker, the F-35 fighter\u00a0and the T-X trainer aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In constant dollars over the next five years the Air Force budget is basically flat, even with the additional funds provided by the recent congressional budget agreement.\u00a0To accomplish this needed modernization, the FY16 Air Force budget&#8217;s only reflected growth \u2014 a meager 1 percent\u00a0at that \u2014 is in its development and procurement accounts.\u00a0Unfortunately, as a senior Pentagon budget official once noted regarding spending reductions, &#8220;When it becomes a carnivorous world, the budget cutters look at the things wearing meat.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reinforcing this observation, Frank Kendall, defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, recently forecast &#8220;disproportionate&#8221; cuts to modernization, research and development, and procurement in future defense budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So where should the Air Force prioritize?\u00a0Given an expanding set of global challenges and a diminishing global base structure, it must focus on the long-range strike mission.\u00a0As Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh has commented, the Air Force will be forced to absorb budget cuts before finalizing its 2017 budget, cuts that may be as large as $5 billion under current estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This will generate significant debates, as it always does, regarding those programs and efforts retaining funding, and those reduced to pay for it.\u00a0But given all the considerations relevant to emerging strategic demands, technological potential, operational needs\u00a0and \u2014 perhaps most significantly \u2014 aircraft inventory and age, the Air Force should make every effort to keep the LRS-B program on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometime in the future, the nation will be grateful for this effort as it calls upon the essential capability that only the LRS-B can provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By M. Thomas Davis,\u00a0a former defense industry executive and a retired Army officer. \u00a0He is the author of numerous studies and articles on defense management policies.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Air Force&#8217;s award of its new Long-Range Strike Bomber to Northrop Grumman was important for many reasons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":83611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":66,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[66,33,17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1149],"class_list":["post-42761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-home","category-opinion"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"GKH6RH76GNGMNIQCR2C6H3AINU","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/commentary\/2016\/01\/20\/commentary-essential-capability-smart-acquisition-priority-investment\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Commentary: Essential Capability, Smart Acquisition, Priority Investment - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The US Air Force&#039;s award of its new Long-Range Strike Bomber to Northrop Grumman was important for many reasons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commentary: Essential Capability, Smart Acquisition, Priority Investment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The US Air Force&#039;s award of its new Long-Range Strike Bomber to Northrop Grumman was important for many reasons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2016\/01\/20\/commentary-essential-capability-smart-acquisition-priority-investment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-20T23:13:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T23:19:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"M. 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