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Air Force Talking Points To the President's Budget Request


SonnyJ
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Air Force Talking Points To the President's Budget Request

The Air Force supports the holistic, strategic approach to next year's budget adopted by the Administration and the Secretary of Defense, and we will continue to provide our best military advice to DoD and Congress as they dispose and approve a fiscal year 2010 budget. We're ready to execute the President's guidance to make the most of the resources we're allocated and to work as a member of the Joint team in accomplishing our Nation's military objectives.

A BALANCED APPROACH

. The FY10 President's Budget Request (PBR) reflects tough, thoughtful decisions to carry out the Air Force's mission to fly, fight and win.in air, space and cyberspace.

. We have taken aggressive measures to balance our portion of the FY10 PBR in a fiscally-constrained environment, amidst the challenges of continuing high operations tempo and rising operating costs.

. To meet the demands of an uncertain and dynamic international security environment, the PBR reflects a strategic balance across our diverse mission sets and functions.

. The Air Force is "All In" today's Joint fight. Executing a balanced strategy will allow us to prevail in current conflicts, while investing in new or expanding capabilities and force structure to meet tomorrow's challenges.

In the FY10 President's Budget Request, some of the key decisions involving the Air Force include:

SUPPORT OUR PEOPLE

. Our Airmen are the foundation upon which all the capabilities of the Air Force are built. We are committed to ensuring an adequate endstrength to prevail in today's fight and prepare for future challenges.

. FY10 Active Component endstrength of 331,700 reflects a growth of 14,650 Airmen.

. FY10 includes a Reserve Component endstrength of 69,500 Airmen and Air National Guard endstrength of 106,700 Airmen.

. Relieving the stress on critically-manned career fields is a top priority. The PBR contains $641M in bonuses and incentives to recruit and retain Airmen, with particular emphasis on stressed career fields.

. Our endstrength enables balanced skill sets across all Air Force Core Functions, while also supporting the growth of new and emerging missions. It reflects our need to expand and enhance our nuclear enterprise, special operations, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and our irregular warfare capabilities.

. The Air Force is committed to providing high Quality of Service programs for our Airmen and their families, with initiatives ranging from advanced educational opportunities to enhanced housing and childcare facilities.

. The FY10 PBR fully funds the Air Force Family Housing Master Plan at $500M to meet the Air Force's goal of caring for families and includes investments in overseas housing.

CONTINUE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AIR FORCE NUCLEAR ROADMAP

. Reinvigorating the Air Force Nuclear Enterprise remains our number one priority.

. The FY10 PBR includes several initiatives to strengthen Air Force stewardship of the nuclear enterprise.

o Increase Nuclear Enterprise by 2,500 personnel to stand up Air Force Global Strike Command and bolster the nuclear workforce.

o Increase funding of the Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, NM to fund upgrades and consolidate all nuclear sustainment matters under one organization.

o Stand-up a fourth B-52 squadron at Minot AFB, ND and funding of $168M to establish a common aircraft configuration across the entire B-52 fleet.

INCREASE EMPHASIS ON IRREGULAR WARFARE AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS SUPPORT TO THE WARFIGHTER

. Recognizing the increasingly important role that our special operations forces play in today's fight, we've prioritized investments to continue growing our special operations capabilities.

. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have increased the requirement for these low-density/high-demand personnel and platforms. We expect this high demand to continue as we prosecute our counterterrorism and irregular warfare missions.

. We will invest additional resources in special operations Airmen and force structure to ensure we are able to meet Combatant Commander's needs, both for today and in the future.

. We continue to seek out opportunities to strengthen our partnerships with other air forces, bolstering our interoperability and enhancing our collective capabilities and capacities.

INCREASE ISR SUPPORT FOR THE WARFIGHTER AND FIELD AND SUSTAIN 50 UAV CAPS BY FY11

. The post 9/11-era has seen an increasing demand for ISR capability in all forms. The irregular campaigns we are waging in Iraq and Afghanistan are ISR-driven. For the foreseeable future, we expect this insatiable demand for ISR to continue.

. We have surged unmanned aerial systems (UAS) capability into the fight achieving 34 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) combat air patrols (CAP) orbiting 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

. We are continuing major investments in unmanned aircraft, moving from the MQ-1 "Predator" to the MQ-9 "Reaper," and are also expanding manned MC-12 operations.

. We are dramatically increasing the number of personnel to maintain and operate these systems, as well as process, exploit, and disseminate the intelligence they gather.

. The FY10 PBR supports the procurement of an additional 5 RQ-4 "Global Hawks" and 24 MQ-9A "Reapers."

. Overall, UAS procurement accounts for 36% of the total aircraft procurements in FY10.

REDUCE SIZE AND INCREASE CAPABILITIES OF TACTICAL AIR FORCES

. We are retiring approximately 250 of the oldest tactical fighter aircraft and further upgrade remaining 4th generation aircraft.

o Reducing the quantity of legacy F-15s, F-16s, and A-10s enables us to modernize a smaller, more capable 5th generation-enabled fighter force tomorrow.

o Reductions are appropriately balanced among overseas and CONUS locations, and between Active and Reserve components.

. We are halting production of the F-22 fighter at 187 aircraft and will continue with planned upgrades.

. The F-22 ensures air dominance against the most sophisticated threats, and will remain in our inventory for decades.

. We will buy 10 F-35 aircraft in FY10.

o The Joint Strike Fighter represents a 5th generation fighter capability for the Air Force and our Joint and Coalition partners.

o Procuring additional F-35s in each fiscal year accelerates the availability of our critical 5th generation fighter capability, improving the average age of our fighter fleet, while at the same time decreasing per unit cost.

. Our complementary 5th generation fighter fleet combines stealth, maneuverability, advanced sensors, avionics and weapons into a more survivable and effective aircraft.

CONTINUE PLANNED TANKER-TRANSPORT MODERNIZATION

. We will release a new KC-X Request for Proposal (RFP) in summer 2009 for a 2010 contract award.

. Replacing our fleet of KC-135s is the top Air Force acquisition priority, with the venerable KC-135 comprising almost 90 percent of our tanker fleet.

. The Air Force will complete the C-17 program of 205 aircraft and prepare for production shutdown.

o With the C-17s provided in the 2008 Supplemental Appropriation, we are comfortable that a fleet of 205 total aircraft is sufficient to meet current and foreseeable requirements.

o FY10 PBR includes $91 million to support shut down of C-17 production.

. We will continue to invest in the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program for the C-5 fleet to provide needed global mobility.

ENHANCE DIRECT SUPPORT AIRLIFT

. We look forward to fielding 38 C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) to provide mission-critical/time-sensitive airlift in direct support of our Joint partners.

. We will continue to work closely with the Army to seamlessly transfer management of the C-27J program and the direct support airlift mission oversight to the Air Force.

. We continue to examine aircrew training, basing and maintenance requirements as part of our overall program transition.

HOLD DEVELOPMENT OF A FOLLOW-ON BOMBER UNTIL THERE IS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEED, REQUIREMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

. The Air Force remains committed to the vital capability of long-range strike.

. The Quadrennial Defense Review and the Nuclear Posture Review will take a closer look at the requirements for long range strike capability. Decisions on the future fielding of a new bomber will be informed by the outcomes of these reviews.

TERMINATE THE CSAR-X HELICOPTER PROGRAM IN FAVOR OF AN EVALUATION OF THE REQUIREMENT AND POTENTIAL JOINT SOLUTIONS

. Our Air Force work in personnel recovery is a national imperative, fulfilling the promise to never leave any Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, or Airmen behind. The decision to terminate the CSAR-X eliminates a specific acquisition program, but not our commitment to this enduring mission.

. Our search and rescue capabilities continue to play a vital role in support of global operations in both peacetime and combat situations, as well as in humanitarian assistance and disaster response.

. We will continue to utilize our HH-60 helicopter fleet for this mission while exploring follow-on Joint solutions and capabilities.

. Current plans to maintain our capacity in this mission set include recapitalizing our HC-130P/N fleet with newer, more capable HC-130Js.

EXTEND AEHF SATELLITE PRODUCTION IN LIEU OF TSAT

. Twenty-first century Joint operations are critically dependent on space communication capabilities, and this dependence will continue to grow in the future.

. 80 percent of our Joint communication requirements are met by leased commercial bandwidth.

. Satellite communications ensure Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen engaged in worldwide operations are connected with their support systems and leadership.

. We will discontinue the Transformational Satellite (TSAT) program and instead procure two more Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites to maintain critical protected MILSATCOM capacity.

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RECAPTURE ACQUISITION EXCELLENCE

. America's Air Force is committed to revitalizing our acquisition enterprise.

. We owe it to our Airmen and taxpayers to acquire the most capable equipment possible, on time and on budget.

. Our acquisition personnel will be the key in this endeavor. The Air Force will increase the size of its acquisition workforce, converting some contractor positions to government civilians.

. The Air Force will release its Acquisition Improvement Plan to focus the acquisition improvement process with initiatives to Revitalize the Air Force Acquisition Workforce; Improve the Requirements Generation Process; Instill Budget and Financial Discipline; Improve Air Force Major Systems Source Selections; and Establish Clear Lines of Authority and Accountability within Acquisition.

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From what I just read at Military.com, they are planning to take the MC-130W's and re-re-convert them to gunships as they are replaced by MC-130J's that are supposed to replace the MC-P's. I think they were calling it the MC/HC recapitalization process so that would indicate they are looking at the HC's in the rescue community as well.

Dan

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