Air Force warns of cuts to planned buys in upcoming budget

[rangerrebew]

Air Force warns of cuts to planned buys in upcoming budget
And, officials say, if Congress blocks aircraft retirements, it will have a ripple effect on other programs.
AUDREY DECKER | MARCH 7, 2024
AIR FORCE DEFENSE BUDGET
   
The Air Force had to make cuts in its budget proposal for next year, officials warned, amid reports the service won’t be able to buy as many F-35 fighter jets as it had planned.

As the Pentagon prepares for the imminent rollout of the fiscal 2025 budget proposal, Bloomberg reports the Defense Department’s fiscal 2025 topline will be $849.8 billion—about $10 billion less than forecasted, because of Congress’s cap on defense spending. The cap forced officials to cut the number of F-35 jets it buys next year, from 83 to 70.

“The Fiscal Responsibility Act did drive a need to cut,” Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s top weapons buyer, said Thursday at the McAleese defense conference in Washington, D.C.

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2024/03/air-force-warns-cuts-planned-buys-upcoming-budget/394788/

[PeteS in CA]

Development and testing cycles so long that some electronic parts in the original design are obsolete with no equivalents available ... companies' bid pricing based on the economies of the scale of projected buy numbers that Congress then alter downward ... who wouldn't want to be a defense contractor?!