WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force’s nuclear programs, including those for its new bomber and next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles, would take a massive hit if Congress doesn’t pass a budget this year, a top service official said Monday.
The service plans on awarding contracts for two major nuclear programs this fiscal year: the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, or GBSD, which will replace the Air Force\u2019s Minuteman III ICBMs; and the Long Range Standoff (LRSO) weapon, an air-launched cruise missile that can be outfitted with a conventional or nuclear warhead. A yearlong CR would force the Air Force to defer those awards by a year, potentially delaying those programs overall, Bunch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If a contract award is delayed long enough, he hinted that the companies bidding on the program could have to go back to the drawing board and rework their proposals to reflect costs in the current market environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You need to make sure you\u2019ve got all your proposals up to date, costwise, and if we start delaying we could start running into problems with that,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The B-21 Raider recently completed its preliminary design review, but a yearlong CR could impact later milestones. The new bomber\u2019s budget is classified, and thus it\u2019s difficult to pinpoint exactly how much of a bump in funding the service would need to keep on schedule, but Bunch said the Raider would need a “serious” anomaly to keep its development on track, “or we would have to slow the program down, which we don\u2019t want to do.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Todd Harrison, a budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said there\u2019s a “good chance” that Congress may be able to pass a budget by the end of the month, given that the House and Senate have “prenegotiated” the defense appropriations bill and several other spending bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even if lawmakers default to a yearlong CR, nuclear programs will be a top priority, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It is really in no one\u2019s interest to pass a full-year CR for defense because of all the anomalies that would be needed for critical programs like the B-21 bomber and Columbia-class sub. Among nuclear modernization programs, those two are at the top of the list to be protected no matter what,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Programs like GBSD and LRSO that were planned to start late this fiscal year anyway could be shifted by a few months without doing much harm, so I think they would be a lower priority if it came to it. But I don\u2019t think that will happen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside of nuclear programs, a yearlong CR could prevent the Compass Call recapitalization program from moving forward, Bunch said. The Air Force has selected L-3 Communications to move technology from the legacy EC-130H onto a new airframe, but the company cannot make a final aircraft selection until the 2017 spending bill is passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A longterm CR could also inject additional risk into the service\u2019s JSTARS recapitalization program, which will not be able to continue radar risk reduction efforts, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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