House lawmakers on Thursday pressed appropriators to increase spending on military aircraft as they prepare to work on the fiscal 2018 appropriations bill.
During the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee annual Members’ Day, 23 lawmakers had the chance to testify before the panel that controls the Pentagon’s purse about what their priorities are for fiscal 2018. The subjects varied from local issues, such as money to clean up the Bethpage plume in New York, to those affecting the security of the nation, including the military’s readiness crisis. An afternoon panel was expected to hear from another 12 lawmakers.
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, said Congress must invest now in the F-35 joint strike fighter, built by Lockheed Martin, to ensure that the program can ramp up to full production in 2021. To take the first step toward that in fiscal 2018, Williams called for appropriators to fund 60 F-35A variants, a conventional takeoff jet used by the U.S. Air Force and most international partners, as well as 24 F-35Bs for the Marine Corps and 12 F-35Cs, which can take off and land on aircraft carriers.
But lawmakers agreed that the nation cannot rely on the F-35 alone. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., and a former A-10 pilot, said Congress must also invest in the A-10 aircraft for close-air support and rescue missions “until we have a proven, tested replacement for it.
“I’m a strong advocate of the F-35,” she said. “But I believe we need both of these capabilities. …We shouldn’t have to choose between the two.”
The Air Force has 283 A-10s, 173 of which have had their wings rebuilt, McSally said. She called on appropriators to invest in fiscal 2018 in re-winging the remaining 110 aircraft.
Some members also called for an increased investment in the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet to make up for F-35 delays in the Navy.
Rep. Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, also spoke in favor of fully funding the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, which will replace the Air Force’s older bombers.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., asked appropriators to include $195 million in their budget proposal for 12 Gray Eagles, a modified Predator unmanned aerial vehicle built by General Atomics.
The Army has four divisions of the drones, but each is three aircraft short. As a result, units are forced to trade off on use of the platforms. This means a unit may be forced to send their drones to a unit that’s about to deploy and lose time that could be spent training, Hunter said.
There was some discussion about the ultimate defense top line for fiscal 2018. President Trump is expected to ask for a $603 billion defense budget, but top Republican defense hawks in Congress have said the military should get about $640 billion next fiscal year in baseline funding. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said he supports the $640 billion top line proposed by Sen. John McCain and Rep. Mac Thornberry.
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, said no one is arguing that a boost in defense spending is needed. “The question is how,” she said.
Trump has proposed offsetting the boost to defense spending with about $54 billion in cuts to domestic spending, an idea that Democrats have dismissed as dead on arrival in the Senate.
