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WASHINGTON (Reuters): The US Air Force is still debating a supplemental budget request for fiscal 2007 to help pay for the global war on terror, including replacing aircraft lost in battle, a top general said on Thursday.
The Air Force has at least $11 billion in needs that were not included in its base budget, Gen. Ronald Keys, commander of the Air Combat Command, told a group of defense writers.
“When I turn in my budget, that is not everything I need, but that is everything I can afford, and there's a big difference there,” Keys said.
The Air Force requested a base budget of $109.5 billion for fiscal 2007.
The Army this year told Pentagon leaders it needed $25 billion in additional funding for fiscal 2008 because it could not accomplish its mission with less.
The Air Force turned in a fiscal 2008 budget plan that met the Pentagon's top line goal, but left many equipment needs unfilled, Keys said, contrasting its approach to the Army's.
All the services are getting a chance to explain their additional funding needs after Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England last month urged them to expand their fiscal 2007 supplemental requests to include costs beyond the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those requests were due on Nov. 1.
The Air Force last week said it missed that deadline and hoped to make its request for extra fiscal 2007 funds this week. It also said it had already asked for $50 billion in wartime funding for fiscal 2008.
Keys said the war, personnel, and replacing worn out Air Force weapons and equipment were his biggest concerns heading into the 2008 budget and the next five-year planning period.
He said the $50 billion additional request for 2008 was aimed mainly at replacing destroyed aircraft and older equipment that was becoming costly to maintain, as well as ground-based sensors whose performance was beginning to suffer due to their long time in battle conditions.
The Air Force has lost 122 aircraft since the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks, including 79 manned aircraft and 43 unmanned aircraft such as Northrop Grumman Corp. <NOC.N> Global Hawks and other drones, said spokeswoman Maj. Brenda Campbell.
She said 45 aircraft were destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan alone, including 16 manned aircraft, two of which were lost to hostile fire, and 29 unmanned aircraft.
Such “recapitalization” needs are generally not funded by supplementary war budgets, which tend to focus on the actual cost of fighting the war on a daily basis, Keys said.
Moreover, supplemental funding does not usually fully cover war expenses, forcing the Air Force to dip into other accounts to pay for even the daily operation costs, Keys said.
In addition, the Air Force faced some $10 billion each year in costs associated with the the refusal of Congress to let the Air Force retire some of its oldest planes, including some 28 B-52 bombers; rising fuel costs and more expensive maintenance of older planes, Keys said.
For instance, he said it took the Air Force six months to rebuild a flap hinge used on its A-10s, since those parts are no longer produced. Asked how much that process cost, Keys said he did not know, but it would probably make him “blanch.”
