The House Armed Services Committee added $3.9 billion for the Air Force to procure an additional 15 C-17s in its mark-up of the Pentagon’s Fiscal 2009 spending plan May 14. It also added $523 million for the advance procurement of long-lead components for 20 additional F-22s and $495 million to keep the F-35’s competing F136 engine program alive. Rep. Ike Skelton, the committee’s chairman, made good on previous remarks that readiness was his top concern by earmarking nearly $2 billion toward the services’ unfunded readiness initiatives. This includes: $50 million for Air National Guard depot equipment maintenance, $60 million for Air Force Reserve depot equipment maintenance, and $34 million for the air sovereignty alert mission, according to the committee’s May 15 statement. The Senate did not provide funding for the C-17s in its mark-up April 30, but it did provide funding for the F136 as well as funding that may go toward the 20 additional F-22s. The House panel also reduced Airborne Laser funding by $42.6 million and provides no funds for a second ABL aircraft. Additionally, it slashed funding essentially in half for the Third Generation Infrared Surveillance program. The committee added language that will allow the Air Force to retire C-5 aircraft only after the service receives the 189th C-17 and there has been an in-depth cost analysis and certification that operational risk would not increase.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.