WASHINGTON \u2014 A continuing resolution signed by President Donald Trump on Sept. 8 will keep the military funded \u2014 albeit at reduced levels \u2014 until Dec. 8, but Defense Department leaders have warned that a longer CR could adversely impact the Air Force\u2019s ability to buy new aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Air Force\u2019s biggest ongoing aircraft competition, the T-X trainer program, is one of the programs that could be caught in the crossfire of a longterm CR, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told Defense News on Aug. 31. However, other programs of record and technology development efforts also stand to be hurt if a continuing resolution is extended into the spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The service plans to award a contract in December to one of the three competing teams: Boeing-Saab\u2019s clean sheet T-X, Leonardo DRS\u2019s T-100 and Lockheed-Korean Aerospace Industries\u2019 T-50A. However, it may not be able to do so if still under a CR, which keeps funding at the same level as the previous fiscal year and prohibits new programs from starting, Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked whether the Air Force could announce a T-X winner without awarding a contract, Wilson responded, \u201cWell, what\u2019s the point? We don\u2019t have the money to be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the T-X competitors are already starting to voice concerns about the effect continuing budget turmoil could have on the program going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the issue really is not whether there is going to be a continuing resolution. There surely is,\u201d William Lynn, CEO of Leonardo DRS, said at the Defense News conference on Sept. 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs it going to be short or is it going to be long? I think a short one, if it\u2019s just to get their ducks in a row and do all the work that\u2019s needed to get the defense bills passed and the budget finalized, I don\u2019t think that will do damage. If it is a long CR that goes beyond the end of the year, I think that does have the potential for harming not just T-X but other programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of those programs could be the Air Force\u2019s biggest procurement priority, the F-35 joint strike fighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If a CR runs only until December, the F-35 joint program office can manage its funding so that testing and development activities stay on pace, said Vice Adm. Mat Winter, the new head of the F-35 program. However, if Congress cannot hammer out an agreement on spending bills by January, the JPO will have to submit an \u201canomaly,\u201d or a request for additional money, to lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the Sept. 6 conference. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry said that congressional defense committees were already discussing potential anomalies with the Defense Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Congress typically grants anomalies for critical programs, Winter noted that it will not be able to break the budget caps to award funding to any program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If an anomaly isn\u2019t granted, the results will not be catastrophic, he said. \u201cWe will just see slowing down, not as many tests, not as much development. It would slow down versus stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the program has several big milestones coming up in fiscal year 2018, including the end of the development phase and the initial operational capability of the Navy\u2019s F-35C carrier-launched variant, and slower-than-anticipated testing could potentially impact those events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A long CR could have implications on the Air Force\u2019s ability to hire and train airmen, particularly pilots and cyber experts, Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou probably have a hard freeze, if not a chill, on hiring,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to hire people in cyber, in training. We\u2019re trying to increase the number of pilots we\u2019re putting through pilot training. … This becomes very quickly an extremely difficult problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also would have ramifications on readiness, most prominently shown by a drastic cut in available flight hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you were in combat or spinning up to go to combat, you\u2019d get to fly. Just about everything else would be grounded, and we have a problem now with retention of pilots,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we have to ground the Air Force when the airlines are hiring, it would be devastating and it would be years to recover from it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A continuing resolution signed by President Donald Trump on Sept. 8 will keep the military funded \u2014 albeit at reduced levels \u2014 until Dec. 8, but Defense Department leaders have warned that a longer CR could adversely impact the Air Force’s ability to buy new aircraft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":83470,"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":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-62333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6473VSSCCFDSZESYP5S3KDODYQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2017\/09\/18\/t-x-f-35-among-programs-potentially-afflicted-by-longterm-continuing-resolution\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n