Rep. Mac Thornberry’s proposed fiscal 2017 defense policy bill increases the number of aircraft and ships the military will buy next year, in an attempt to restore the Defense Department priorities that President Obama looked to cut in his budget request.
The House Armed Services Committee chairman’s proposed National Defense Authorization Act would increase how many systems the military buys from jets to cargo planes to ships. Thornberry’s committee is set to debate and mark up the draft on Wednesday.
The president asked for a total of 63 F-35s — 43 of the Air Force’s variant, 16 of the Marine Corps’ version that can take off and land vertically, and four the Navy will use to land on a carrier. All three services get an increase under Thornberry’s plan, which would authorize 74 of planes built by Lockheed Martin — five more for airmen, two more for Marines and four more for sailors.
These numbers meet the number of aircraft requested by the services and combatant commands to meet identified shortfalls, according to a summary of the bill.
The bill grows other parts of the military’s air fleet, including authorizing 14 F/A-18 E/F aircraft, three more C-130J cargo planes and two more V-22 Ospreys than the president’s budget request.
The draft bill also grows the Navy’s fleet by adding one more destroyer and one more littoral combat ship to the administration’s request.
Thornberry’s bill funds all this while staying within the president’s top line by reshuffling how much of the $610.5 billion for defense goes to base priorities and how much goes to operations overseas.
About $574 billion funds base requirements in the chairman’s draft, including about $23 billion from the war fund, according to a summary of the bill. The remainder, nearly $35.7 billion, will cover the president’s overseas contingency operations until April 2017, at which point the next administration can request supplemental funding from Congress.
By comparison, the president only requested about $5 billion from the war fund to cover base expenses.
