More on War Supplemental

Here are a few more details on the Obama Administration’s $75.5 billion supplemental spending request for the Defense Department that went to Congress last week. Included in the Air Force’s $2.38 billion aircraft procurement section is $196 million to buy 10 MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles and $45 million for six manned C-12 aircraft, according to justification documents that we have seen. (We’ve already reported on the $600 million earmarked for four F-22s.) Coupled with the five Reapers included in the Fiscal 2009 bridge supplemental, the Air Force would receive a total of 15 MQ-9s using this year’s war funds on top of those it is buying in its baseline budget. As for the six C-12s, they would be part of the fledgling fleet of up to 37 manned MC-12W aircraft that the Air Force is buying to boost overhead signals intelligence and full-motion-video coverage in Southwest Asia. The supplemental procurement request would also cover data link retrofits for Reapers and MQ-1 Predator UAVs, single line of sight/beyond line of sight communication upgrades for F-16s, and large aircraft infrared countermeasures defensive systems for C-5s, C-17s, and C-130s.