Long-Range-Strike Funding Explained

The $3.7 billion figure that senior Pentagon officials have been citing as the funding for the future long-range-strike family of systems over the next five fiscal years is actually the amount of funding programmed for the Air Force’s Next Generation Bomber over that span. Air Force officials confirmed this. The bomber funding profile is laid out in the justification documents accompanying the service’s Fiscal 2012 budget request: Fiscal 2012: $197 million, Fiscal 2013: $294 million, Fiscal 2014: $550 million, Fiscal 2015: $1 billion, and Fiscal 2016: $1.7 billion. The future years defense program does include money for the other LRS elements. For example, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told House lawmakers last month that there is $800 million earmarked over those five years for development of a new nuclear-capable cruise missile that will replace the Air Launched Cruise Missile.