Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said current operations are eating away at the money available for future investment. Speaking at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 24, Donley said the ratio of operations and maintenance spending compared to expenditures on research, development, test, and evaluation in Fiscal 2012 was 64 to 34, but in the Fiscal 2013 budget request, it’s 67:33. While that may not seem like a big shift, it represents a swing of about $3.5 billion, from $39.3 billion for RDT&E in Fiscal 2012 to $35.8 for that investment in next fiscal year’s request, according to Donley’s figures.
The design of the launch facilities for the Air Force’s new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile are likely to undergo major revision, posing yet another challenge for the much-delayed and over-budget program to modernize the land-based component of America’s nuclear triad, officials said.