The Air Force’s Fiscal 2015 budget request, released Tuesday, calls for a 40 percent reduction in USAF’s current fleet of E-8C JSTARS. However, it also provides $2.4 billion over the Future Years Defense Program for a JSTARS replacement aircraft. The next-gen JSTARS will be an “affordable commercially available aircraft,” that is expected to reduce operational and sustainment costs by 27 percent, according to budget documents. “It yields a smaller logistics footprint and improves operational capability with an advanced ground surveillance radar and on-board battle management suite,” states the documents. The next-gen JSTARS fleet is slated to reach initial operational capability in Fiscal 2022 with a planned fleet of 16 aircraft. “The new aircraft will have much greater operational flexibility than the E-8C, [and it will be] able to operate out of 70 percent more airfields,” states the document. To fund the recapitalization effort, the Fiscal 2015 budget request also seeks to divest the Air Force’s E-8C test capability, including the T-3 test aircraft. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the JSTARS fleet is one of the Defense Department’s high-demand, low-density platforms. “What we try to do is to meet combatant commanders at the times when they need them the most, but it’s hard to maintain a persistent presence with the JSTARS globally,” Dempsey told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. (Air Force Fiscal 2015 budget overview)
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.