Marc Selinger
Defense Daily
The U.S. Air Force has launched a two-month review of all of its programs to determine whether some of them are no longer needed, according to a service official.
The review, which began Jan. 16 and is scheduled to end March 15, is meant to go beyond the annual budget process, which typically focuses on changes from the previous year, Air Force Undersecretary Matthew Donovan said Jan. 18. The results will influence planning for fiscal year 2020.
The Air Force has not conducted a similar effort in more than 20 years.
“It’s time to now do a reset,” Donovan told reporters after speaking at an Air Force Association breakfast. “Let’s take a look at all our programs, make sure that everything is still relevant, that we’re spending money the way we want to spend it, not just because it’s just passing from year to year. I don’t expect major changes, but I think it will provide some visibility into what we’re doing.”
Turning to aviation, Donovan warned that development of the B-21 Raider bomber will be forced to slow down in about two months, or at the end of March, if Congress does not pass an FY 2018 defense appropriations bill.
The Air Force requested $2 billion for the program in FY 2018, but because the government has been operating under a series of continuing resolutions for almost four months, the program currently can spend only at the $1.3 billion level approved for FY 2017.
“Once you get to about six months [of CRs], then it’s going to start affecting” the program, he said. “It starts slowing down the program because you’re running out of money.”
The Air Force wants to begin fielding the B-21 in the mid-2020s. Northrop Grumman [NOC] is the B-21’s prime contractor.
