The Air Force’s share of the $26 billion “Opportunity, Growth, and Security” initiative—an add-on to the defense budget being proposed with the Fiscal 2015 budget—would be $7 billion “if we get it,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said Wednesday. Should the money come through, it would be directed to aircraft modifications, facilities repair, training range improvements, and “other modernization items,” James told attendees at a Bloomberg budget conference in Washington, D.C. It’s iffy, though: USAF only gets the money “if Congress passes offsets” from taxes and other programs to make the funds available, she said. Last week, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told reporters that it was still being decided whether to give Congress an unfunded priorities list. He said if one service did it, “we all will,” or no one will.
The Pentagon has concluded a new agreement to buy laser-guidance kits that turn rockets into drone-killing weapons. BAE Systems and the Defense Department announced a framework deal of up to seven years for 25,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance kits annually for the U.S. military.