View Full Version : US 2012 Budget for Aircraft Procurement
2012 Aircraft Budget (http://www.afa.org/members/CommTools/slidedeck/budget/DOD_2012_AircraftProcurement.pdf)
The Department of the Navy aircraft procurement budget is larger than the Department of the Air Force's
The Navy and Marines – with a total of about 70% of the number of systems as the Air Force – is buying almost twice as many aircraft (227 vs 114). [AF Chief of Staff, General Schwartz, has said the AF needs to buy about 200 aircraft per year in order to make modest reductions in average aircraft age of the fleet.]
The Army – with about 60% of the number of systems as the Air Force – is buying more than twice as many aircraft (236 vs 114).
If the aircraft buy rate holds steady over time [which it never does], the Navy is on a replacement rate of about 17.5 years – which is respectable.
The Army replacement rate is about 15 years, and it, too is respectable.
The Air Force replacement rate is a little over 49 years -- which means that, except for retiring old systems, the average age will not get younger this fiscal year.
johnnypaveway
8th Mar 2011, 18:12
Isn't the budget rethink indicative of the USAF shift of focus towards cyber/space and rpv?
Some folks in the Air Force have indicated they are very concerned about loosing their ability to perform the long range strike mission and the fact that they have inadequate numbers of true air dominance fighters (F-22) as the F-35 lacks speed, missile load-out, and over all signature for that mission.
Clearedtoroll
8th Mar 2011, 21:39
From the other side of the pond I thought both of these quotes from Robert Gates' speech at West Point a few weeks back were interesting:
Looking ahead, though, in the competition for tight defense dollars between the services, the Army also must confront the reality that the most plausible, high-end scenarios for the U.S. military are primarily naval and air engagements – whether in Asia, the Persian Gulf, or elsewhere.
But in my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should “have his head examined,” as General MacArthur so delicately put it
Full text on DoD website...
chopper2004
8th Mar 2011, 23:37
Don't forget the up and coming CVLSP in the budget as I saw the AW139 demonstrator today at Heli Expo in Orlando. It was quite impressive though kept behind the scenes so to speak in the back where they have aircraft for sale such as old Hueys etc etc
AvWeek On-Line
US Air Force CVLSP Competition - Yes or No?
Posted by Graham Warwick at 3/5/2011 1:47 PM CST
Mixed messages from the U.S. Air Force on its plans to buy 205 off-the-shelf helicopters for ICBM-field security and executive transport have European manufacturers concerned they could be cut out of the competition, writes Amy Butler.
AgustaWestland and Eurocopter, through EADS North America, are keeping a sharp eye on the $3 billion Common Vertical Lift Support Program (CVLSP) to replace the Air Force’s ageing fleet of Bell UH-1Ns.
In early February the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, said the Air Force is leaning toward bypassing a competition and sole-sourcing CVLSP, with Sikorsky’s HH-60M Black Hawk as the top contender.
A directed procurement would be a major blow to AgustaWestland, which is planning to offer a version of its commercial AW139, and to EADS, which would propose a helicopter from Eurocopter’s product line.
Kowalski said the Air Force is proposing using the Economy Act - which allows the government to take unconventional actions to balance the federal budget - to bypass a competition and quickly field helicopters to satisfy an urgent need in place since 1996.
Industry officials immediately questioned the strategy. “To use the fact that [the Air Force] waited this long as a justification for bypassing a competition doesn’t make sense,” said one official on background.
Use of the Economy Act to justify the sole-source purchase of helicopters is only one of a number of options under consideration for CVLSP, stressed David Van Buren, the Air Force’s senior acquisition official, at a conference in Washington, DC., on Mar. 1.
Van Buren said his recommendations are expected by the end of the month. The Air Force has requested funding for the first two CVLSP helicopters in the fiscal 2012 budget request sent to Congress in February.
“We are aware of the funding profile for CVLSP and the desired schedule and we can meet or exceed the [Air Force’s] schedule for deliveries,” says Dan Hill, who handles business development at AgustaWestland.
“We would encourage them to go ahead and have the competition because we don’t think it will interfere with [the] urgent and compelling need for the CVLSP fleet,” he says.
The U.S. Air Force already is buying HH-60Ms to replace combat search-and-rescue HH-60Gs lost in combat and is proposing to continue buying helicopters from Sikorsky rather than restage the previously terminated CSAR-X competition.