Not even the Air Force’s top three acquisition programs will be protected if sequester returns in Fiscal 2016, said industry experts during a wide-ranging panel discussion at AFA’s Air & Space Conference last week. James McAleese, founder of contracting consulting firm McAleese and Associates, said USAF spends about $24 billion annually on research, development, test, and evaluation, which far outstrips the other services. While much of the Long-Range Strike Bomber program, one of the top three priorities, remains shrouded in secrecy, McAleese said the program is one of the few slated for an increase in RDT&E dollars, rising to around $3.3 billion by 2019 by most recent estimates. If sequester returns however, the Air Force’s other two programs will be stressed—namely production of the F-35A strike fighter and the KC-46 tanker. The LRS-B is largely “walled off” because it’s primarily still in development, he said. A return of sequester in 2016 would effectively “flatline” the Department of Defense’s modernization efforts, as 60 percent of a 2016 sequester cut would target modernization accounts, some $115 billion, with only 35 percent from operations and maintenance.
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.