A House proposal to spend $623 million on a new fleet of surveillance aircraft that the Air Force did not want was cut Monday from a final 2019 defense authorization bill.
After two weeks of closed-door debate, the newly unveiled National Defense Authorization Act opted instead for a compromise between the House and Senate that prevents the immediate retirement of the existing Gulf War-era E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, or JSTARS, aircraft.
The Air Force views the E-8, manufactured by Northrop Grumman, as an obsolete aircraft that would be among the first shot down in any modern combat encounter. And rather than select a new aircraft to run JSTARS, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson wants to replace it with a new system for surveillance and targeting in battlefield situations. Wilson compared the E-8 JSTARS program to antiquated early mobile phones and dial-up Internet service, explaining that her service has no desire to spend money on a whole new fleet to keep it in the air.
On the other side, Georgia’s congressional delegation strongly supported replenishing the JSTARS fleet, which is based at Robins Air Force Base. And Monday’s compromise, which maintains but fails to recapitalize the fleet, has created sharp divisions among Georgia lawmakers.
Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., lashed out Monday at Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., in a statement just before the bill details were disclosed to the press, blaming the senator for the decision to nix the $623 million authorization for the aircraft. Both lawmakers worked on the NDAA as members of the armed services committees.
“When Sen. Perdue, who was also a member of the conference committee, withdrew his support of this program which the Georgia congressional delegation – including Sen. Perdue – has overwhelmingly supported throughout the last seven years, it effectively ended the program for this NDAA,” Scott said in the statement. “Unfortunately, without Sen. Perdue’s support on the conference committee, the replacement aircraft will not be fielded, forcing a higher risk to our men and women in uniform by continuing to fly the 48-year-old legacy JSTARS aircraft which are in need of recapitalization.”
Perdue said the provisions in the bill will have a positive effect on the JSTARS fleet and the Georgia base.
“This is no longer Barack Obama’s military,” Perdue said in a statement. “While I have always supported the JSTARS recap, we have a new president, defense secretary, and Air Force secretary who have presented a better long-term solution.”
The NDAA bill as unveiled blocks the Air Force’s plan to retire three JSTARS aircraft, and also adds resources to support the development of the Air Force’s preferred new system, the Advanced Battle Management System.
“The Advance Battlefield Management System will give us the capability to access both restricted and non-restricted airspace. This is a necessity in supporting our troops in harm’s way as well as our overall intelligence gathering. With the solution I support, we save JSTARS jobs, maintain the JSTARS fleet into the next decade, accelerate the implementation of ABMS, and gain a new mission for Robins,” Perdue said.
But the NDAA also requires the Air Force to provide Congress a better sense of how it plans to build the new system to monitor troops on the battlefield.
“The Air Force still has a fair amount of work to do in terms of sketching out in detail how that’s develop,” a senior armed services committee aide said.
The NDAA bill is expected to have a floor vote in the House this week and could pass the Senate in early August.
