The Department of the Air Force has submitted a $4.2 billion unfunded priorities list to Congress for fiscal 2021, which includes roughly $3.2 billion for the U.S. Air Force and $1 billion for the fledgling U.S. Space Force. The USAF request, which is significantly more than the additional $2.8 billion requested in fiscal 2020, asks for an additional $1.3 billion for 12 more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and long-lead support items, as well as for money for advanced technologies, weapons, and future ranges. The Space Force’s first unfunded priorities list covers new technologies, warfighter development, asset protection, and fielding additional systems.
Heading into budget negotiation season, the three civilian heads of the armed forces outlined their looming struggles with Capitol Hill at a Feb. 21 Center for Strategic and International Studies panel. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett said it’s harder to convince lawmakers of the merits of investing in space assets and digital networks because their benefits are more abstract than a fighter jet or a tanker: “There aren’t tires to kick." Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly added it’s presumptuous to think the Pentagon might get a higher topline in fiscal 2022 and beyond.
U.S. Strategic Command simulated the possibility of nuclear conflict in Europe for Defense Secretary Mark Esper during a visit this week to Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. The exercise is part of the Pentagon’s routine slate of wargames and other events that it uses to consider its steps if nuclear war erupts, and comes as the U.S. is pursuing so-called “tactical” nuclear weapons to counter similar assets in Russia’s stockpile. The exercise featured a pretend Defense Secretary and a President facing a situation where Russia dropped a low-yield nuclear weapon on “a site on NATO territory” in wartime, a senior defense official told reporters Feb. 21. The United States hit back in a “limited response” using another nuclear weapon.
The next Airborne Battle Management System experiment, to take place April 8, will be "massive" and include space superiority activities and the shoot-down of both an unmanned aircraft and a cruise missile, Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper told reporters February 21. He also discussed how the Air Force will go about choosing contractors to build the ultimate system on a program that must be developed altogether differently than any previous project.
