USMC:
6.
Marine, Air Force Congress Wish Lists: About $7.6 Billion (full
text below)
Marine, Air Force Congress Wish Lists: About
$7.6 Billion
By Roxana Tiron and Tony
Capaccio | March 23, 2024 05:04PM ET
(Updates with Air Force
list starting in first paragraph.)
(Bloomberg) -- The
Marine Corps has about $2.1 billion in needs that weren’t part of the fiscal
2016 Pentagon budget request, while the Air Force has a wish list of almost
$5.5 billion, according to documents the services sent to lawmakers.
Marine Corps priorities
include $1.05 billion for six more Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, $24.5 million for three Bell H-1
helicopters and $180 million for two Lockheed KC-130J aircraft.
For the Air Force, one
of the costliest demands is $1.2 billion for 13 Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules
transport aircraft as part of a recapitalization effort. The Air Force also
would need another $160 million for eight more General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper
drones.
The so-called unfunded
requirements list has been requested by the leaders of the congressional
committees overseeing defense. It gives the military services a second chance
to pitch programs the Pentagon hasn’t had enough resources to fund completely.
The other military services are also expected to send in their needs as
Congress starts writing next year’s defense bills.
“These programs
contained on the list would further enhance our combat readiness and
effectiveness should additional funds above those already requested in the
fiscal year 2016 president’s budget be made available,” General Joseph Dunford,
Commandant of the Marine Corps, wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate
defense panels.
The 2016 budget request
already includes funding for nine F-35B Marine Corps models; 28 H-1 helicopters
and two KC-130J aircraft.
The Pentagon’s official
budget request also includes 29 MQ-9 Reaper drones and 27 C-130 transport
aircraft, including versions for Special Operations and personnel recovery.
Other needs include
$23.3 million airfield security improvements at Marine Corps Air Station in
Cherry Point, North Carolina, and $11.7 million for an enlisted aircrew trainer
facility at Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California.
The Air Force listed
$132.3 million for the modification of engines for Boeing Co.’s B1-B bomber aircraft, $3 million for Lockheed F-16
fighter-jet cockpit modernization and $31 million for C-130J fuselage training.
Lawmakers have been
wrestling with defense funding for fiscal 2016 in light of the 2011 Budget
Control Act, Public Law 112-25, which caps national
security spending at $523 billion.
Both the House and
Senate budget blueprints to be considered this week include a proposed boost in
war funding that isn’t subject to the caps. The bills would provide $96 billion
for the overseas contingency operations fund, compared with the $58 billion
President Barack Obama requested for that war fund.
To contact the reporters
on this story: Roxana Tiron in Washington at[email protected]; Tony Capaccio in
Washington at [email protected] To contact the editors
responsible for this story: Katherine Rizzo at [email protected]Robin Meszoly, Bennett
Roth
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