Air Force budget wish list exceeds other services

The military has identified nearly $30 billion worth of equipment, base improvement projects and other priorities that did not make the cut for the Pentagon's $515.4 billion request for its fiscal 2009 base budget.

The lists of unfunded requirements, submitted to Congress by each of the military services and the U.S. Special Operations Command at the behest of House Armed Services ranking member Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., include billions of dollars for weapons systems ranging from an LPD-17 amphibious warfare ship to 15 additional Boeing C-17 Globemaster III cargo planes.

Air Force officials, who have clamored for more funding for several aircraft programs, listed about $18.75 billion in unmet needs -- a figure that dwarfs the amount sought by all the other services and USSOCOM combined.

Their 11-page wish list includes $3.9 billion to pay for the C-17s alone -- an amount equal to the Army's entire unfunded list. Air Force officials want $600 million for four more Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fighter jets, which the Pentagon has said it plans to buy using fiscal 2009 wartime supplemental dollars.

In addition, the Air Force wants another $576 million to buy eight C-130J cargo planes, aircraft that, officials wrote, are necessary to transport troops and equipment within a theater of operations.

Air Force officials also would like $761 million to buy five more Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters next year, as well as $616 million for five Northrop Grumman Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles.

Besides aircraft, the Air Force included $385 million on its list to enlarge its ranks by 13,554 active-duty troops, 3,400 reservists and 1,830 civilians.

That move would go against Air Force efforts to become leaner and more efficient by cutting personnel strength by 40,000 troops. Service officials have reasoned that current steps to boost the size of the Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 will require a larger Air Force to transport the additional troops and equipment.

The Navy and Marine Corps listed at or near the top of their individual lists $1.7 billion to buy the tenth and final LPD-17.

The Northrop Grumman Ship Systems program, critical to the modernization of U.S. amphibious assault forces, has support within Congress, which added $50 million for advanced procurement money for the LPD-17 in the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations bill. The Navy did not request funding for the final ship in its 2009 request.

Although it made the unfunded lists, the 10th LPD-17 does not appear to be a top concern among Navy brass.

"I support the shipbuilding program that I have put forth for the '09 budget," Chief of Naval Operations Gary Roughead said this week. "There is not an LPD-17 in that budget submission."

The Navy also included in its list $941 million for another T-AKE auxiliary dry cargo dock carrier to keep the production contract going. As with the LPD-17, lawmakers inserted $300 million for advanced procurement for three T-AKE ships in the fiscal 2008 Defense spending bill, but the Navy requested only two of the ships, built by the National Steel and Shipbuilding unit of General Dynamics Corp.

The lists compiled by the Army and Marine Corps, which have bemoaned sagging readiness rates and severe equipment shortages in nondeployed combat units, were comparatively modest.

The LPD-17, for example, comprised more than half of the Marine Corps' $3 billion list, which included $259.4 million in military construction projects and $636.9 billion for advanced procurement money for several aircraft and other systems.

The largest big-ticket item on the Army's list is $1.6 billion for Humvees. Service officials also want $625.5 million for "driver vision enhancement" technologies and $489 million for the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck.

The special operations command listed only $694 million in unfunded requirements, including $189.9 million for military construction projects.