If you want to know what Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh will mention in his Fiscal 2015 “unfunded priorities list”—a staple document usually requested by Congress—look at the Air Force’s plans for its share of the $26 billion Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative, said USAF Undersecretary Eric Fanning. The OGSI is a new budget device that seems to fulfill the role of the unfunded priorities list, but there will be some minor tweaks, Fanning told defense reporters in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. The two will “align very closely,” but “there are some emergent requirements since we put [the OGSI] together,” he said. “We’ve made some proposals to [Welsh], things he might want to add or do differently,” Fanning noted. It’s Welsh’s list, so Fanning wouldn’t say what the emerging requirements are, but he did say it should be out soon.
A combined Navy and Air Force program is seeking to build a smaller version of a ubiquitous air-to-air missile that could give advanced aircraft, such as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, greater magazine depth in a high-end fight.