Critical functions that the Air Force has long funded using overseas contingency operations funds will have to “migrate” to the base budget if the service is to remain ready, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Thursday. “We are in the process of determining which of those functions that were funded by OCO will endure, and therefore whose funding will need to be migrated, at an appropriate level, back” to the base budget, he said in his address at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. He added, “we estimate that billions of dollars will need to be migrated back in this fashion.” Some of those functions include remotely piloted aircraft and flying hours, he noted. “While we have been weaning ourselves off OCO, we will have to make the full transition” to baseline budgeting by Fiscal 2014, he said. Schwartz also warned “we will make additional tough calls” in the years to come.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
