Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
The Hill
February 12, 2008 By Roxana Tiron
Two House Armed Services Committee leaders are pressing Defense Secretary Robert Gates to submit a long-overdue military airlift study to avoid delay and cost increases in the new Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program.
Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Jim Saxton (R-N.J.), the chairman and ranking member of the Armed Services Air and Land Forces subcommittee, warned Friday in a letter that without the study’s prompt delivery and Gates’s stamp of approval, the JCA program could risk “interruption, needless delay, cost increases and delayed aircraft deliveries.”
The joint Army-Air Force program was the subject of an intense congressional debate last year over whether it should fall under full control of the Air Force. Defense authorizers ultimately agreed to keep it as a shared program, but they prohibited any money to be spent on the aircraft in 2008 until the Pentagon submitted several airlift studies to Congress.
One key study in particular, the “Joint Intra-Theater Airlift Fleet Analysis Mix,” remains outstanding. While it was completed in December, it is still awaiting final approval from the leaders in the Pentagon. The study is expected to look at the necessary mix of C-130Js, C-17s and JCAs needed in the airlift fleet, and its recommendations could influence the overall purchasing decision of the JCA.
The two lawmakers were also critical of the delay of other Pentagon airlift studies. They noted that by the time the papers had made their way to the committees, the Pentagon had already awarded the contract for the new cargo aircraft.
The lawmakers wrote that the “studies have been overcome by operational necessity” and that “procurement of the JCA has already begun.”
A team made up of L-3 Communications, Alenia North America and Boeing won the contract for the multibillion-dollar JCA in June 2007 with Alenia’s C-27J.
The Army has a more immediate need for the plane, while the Air Force is expected to start buying in 2010. The contractors received an order for two aircraft in 2007 from the Army, while Congress has appropriated money for four more aircraft in 2008.
But the Army cannot spend that money for 2008 until 30 days after the congressional defense committees receive the airlift studies and the Defense secretary certifies them. The Army and Air National Guard will primarily fly the C-27J. The Pentagon has approved an initial $2.04 billion buy for 78 C-27Js, with 54 going to the Army and 24 to the Air Force.
In the past couple of years, the program has been fraught with controversy, both at the Pentagon and within Congress, over which service should be flying the aircraft.
That debate over roles and missions is far from over. The Air Force is expected to renew its push to become the sole operator of the C-27J, arguing that it does airlift best and has the appropriate manpower to fly the planes, according to an Air Force official speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The military services have started meeting in working groups at the two-star general level to discuss roles and missions. Those discussions will gain in importance as the Pentagon is preparing its 2009 Quadrennial Defense Review, a sweeping study of military strategy.
Congress will also weigh in over the next several months now that House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) has appointed a “roles and missions” panel to look at threats and capabilities in each of the military branches. But Skelton also wants the Pentagon to redraw its roles and missions — something it has not done in about six decades — rather than rely on Congress to referee arguments between services, as was the case with the JCA.
February 12, 2008 By Roxana Tiron
Two House Armed Services Committee leaders are pressing Defense Secretary Robert Gates to submit a long-overdue military airlift study to avoid delay and cost increases in the new Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) program.
Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Jim Saxton (R-N.J.), the chairman and ranking member of the Armed Services Air and Land Forces subcommittee, warned Friday in a letter that without the study’s prompt delivery and Gates’s stamp of approval, the JCA program could risk “interruption, needless delay, cost increases and delayed aircraft deliveries.”
The joint Army-Air Force program was the subject of an intense congressional debate last year over whether it should fall under full control of the Air Force. Defense authorizers ultimately agreed to keep it as a shared program, but they prohibited any money to be spent on the aircraft in 2008 until the Pentagon submitted several airlift studies to Congress.
One key study in particular, the “Joint Intra-Theater Airlift Fleet Analysis Mix,” remains outstanding. While it was completed in December, it is still awaiting final approval from the leaders in the Pentagon. The study is expected to look at the necessary mix of C-130Js, C-17s and JCAs needed in the airlift fleet, and its recommendations could influence the overall purchasing decision of the JCA.
The two lawmakers were also critical of the delay of other Pentagon airlift studies. They noted that by the time the papers had made their way to the committees, the Pentagon had already awarded the contract for the new cargo aircraft.
The lawmakers wrote that the “studies have been overcome by operational necessity” and that “procurement of the JCA has already begun.”
A team made up of L-3 Communications, Alenia North America and Boeing won the contract for the multibillion-dollar JCA in June 2007 with Alenia’s C-27J.
The Army has a more immediate need for the plane, while the Air Force is expected to start buying in 2010. The contractors received an order for two aircraft in 2007 from the Army, while Congress has appropriated money for four more aircraft in 2008.
But the Army cannot spend that money for 2008 until 30 days after the congressional defense committees receive the airlift studies and the Defense secretary certifies them. The Army and Air National Guard will primarily fly the C-27J. The Pentagon has approved an initial $2.04 billion buy for 78 C-27Js, with 54 going to the Army and 24 to the Air Force.
In the past couple of years, the program has been fraught with controversy, both at the Pentagon and within Congress, over which service should be flying the aircraft.
That debate over roles and missions is far from over. The Air Force is expected to renew its push to become the sole operator of the C-27J, arguing that it does airlift best and has the appropriate manpower to fly the planes, according to an Air Force official speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The military services have started meeting in working groups at the two-star general level to discuss roles and missions. Those discussions will gain in importance as the Pentagon is preparing its 2009 Quadrennial Defense Review, a sweeping study of military strategy.
Congress will also weigh in over the next several months now that House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) has appointed a “roles and missions” panel to look at threats and capabilities in each of the military branches. But Skelton also wants the Pentagon to redraw its roles and missions — something it has not done in about six decades — rather than rely on Congress to referee arguments between services, as was the case with the JCA.