The Pentagon’s latest selected acquisition report—for the December 2006 reporting period—shows that the Air Force’s C-130 avionics modernization program did increase in cost—by some 21 percent—as USAF predicted. The rise, per the SAR release, was due “primarily to increases in labor rates and install hours … and increases in mission support equipment, simulator/trainers, depot costs, and other weapon system costs.” The Air Force decision not to pursue AMP for 166 C-130s helped “partially offset” the increase. The service has had to ground or restrict 53 of its C-130s, including three that are in such poor shape USAF would have to pay $2 million per aircraft to repair them; the service decided last year not to apply the AMP upgrade to its oldest E models. The “current” SAR likely is outdated, though, since Boeing said last month that it had lowered the cost by 40 percent for the second C-130 over the first Hercules to go through the AMP upgrade by developing efficiencies during the process.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
