ORAC
12th Jan 2005, 06:45
AW & ST:
The White House Office of Management & Budget is telling the Pentagon to slash its 2006 budget plan by $10 billion and prepare for another $10 billion cut each year for the duration of the future years´defense plan, sending military officials scrambling to comply with the last minute financial demand.....
Items facing the chop include up to 175 of the USAF´s F-22s, the Navy´s MMA replacement for the P-3... as well as a cut of as much as $1 billion from the USMC V-22 program.....
...the F-22 buy could eventually drop to as few as 100 aircraft. That translates to a wing of three squadrons (roughly the same as the F-117 fleet) with extras for attrition spares and testing. The trade is seen as an option that would allow preservation of the F-35 JSF program which offers higher production numbers and a large export potential.......The Air Force has already awarded contracts for 83 of the stealth fighters. If production were capped at near 100, it would force the companies to start shuttering lines soon after 2006.....
The repercussions on the V-22 could be nearly as severe. Officials are bracing for a near term reduction of eight tilt rotors in the 2006-11 budget period.....
The demise of MMA would leave the Navy operationally hampered and represent a major setback for Boeing, which counted the win using the 737 platform as one of its highlights in an otherwise bleak 2004. By the end of the decade, the Navy faces large-scale retirement of its P-3 force, which is being used heavily in the Pentagon´s anti-terrorism operations. Without MMA, those airframes would have to be made to last longer.
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Early analysis of the recent LM F/A-22 crash at Nellis AFB is, for the most part, producing theories of what did not cause the accident.
But Air Force officials fear - that with Congress looking to cut programs in order to finance more ground troops - it is almost certain the mishap will further delay production, and ultimately jeopardize the stealth fighter´s future.
The test did not involve flying with a heavy ferry-load of fuel, shifting the aircraft´s CoG or taking off with insufficient speed.
"It was a routine flight with no unusual configuration of external fuel tanks or weapon stores", says a senior Air Force official. "The problem appeared on take-off after lift-off. The pilot´s only input to the flight controls was (upward) pitch. There was no engine problem. There was a pitch command and all of a sudden the nose went down. The pilot had about 1.5 sec to react, so he ejected."
The White House Office of Management & Budget is telling the Pentagon to slash its 2006 budget plan by $10 billion and prepare for another $10 billion cut each year for the duration of the future years´defense plan, sending military officials scrambling to comply with the last minute financial demand.....
Items facing the chop include up to 175 of the USAF´s F-22s, the Navy´s MMA replacement for the P-3... as well as a cut of as much as $1 billion from the USMC V-22 program.....
...the F-22 buy could eventually drop to as few as 100 aircraft. That translates to a wing of three squadrons (roughly the same as the F-117 fleet) with extras for attrition spares and testing. The trade is seen as an option that would allow preservation of the F-35 JSF program which offers higher production numbers and a large export potential.......The Air Force has already awarded contracts for 83 of the stealth fighters. If production were capped at near 100, it would force the companies to start shuttering lines soon after 2006.....
The repercussions on the V-22 could be nearly as severe. Officials are bracing for a near term reduction of eight tilt rotors in the 2006-11 budget period.....
The demise of MMA would leave the Navy operationally hampered and represent a major setback for Boeing, which counted the win using the 737 platform as one of its highlights in an otherwise bleak 2004. By the end of the decade, the Navy faces large-scale retirement of its P-3 force, which is being used heavily in the Pentagon´s anti-terrorism operations. Without MMA, those airframes would have to be made to last longer.
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Early analysis of the recent LM F/A-22 crash at Nellis AFB is, for the most part, producing theories of what did not cause the accident.
But Air Force officials fear - that with Congress looking to cut programs in order to finance more ground troops - it is almost certain the mishap will further delay production, and ultimately jeopardize the stealth fighter´s future.
The test did not involve flying with a heavy ferry-load of fuel, shifting the aircraft´s CoG or taking off with insufficient speed.
"It was a routine flight with no unusual configuration of external fuel tanks or weapon stores", says a senior Air Force official. "The problem appeared on take-off after lift-off. The pilot´s only input to the flight controls was (upward) pitch. There was no engine problem. There was a pitch command and all of a sudden the nose went down. The pilot had about 1.5 sec to react, so he ejected."