The Air Force’s list of unfunded priorities for Fiscal 2011, issued Feb. 19, totals $548 million and is dominated by logistics support, although there are requests for some communications gear and simulators as well as command and control equipment. Topping the five-section list is $337.2 million for weapon system sustainment, including funds to cover preprogrammed depot maintenance on one B-2, two C-5s, and 11 KC-135s. The second category, theater posture, entails $70 million for expeditionary airfield equipment including some fuel gear. Third is $55 million for the distributed common ground system integrated collaborative command and control processing, exploitation, and dissemination system. In the fourth spot is $28.7 million for battlefield airmen equipment and joint terminal attack controller modeling and simulation. Fifth, is $57.1 million to procure 674 vehicles and some support equipment for the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. (Unfunded Priority List)
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
