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The U.S. Air Force’s top acquisition official singled out the service’s Boeing KC-46 tanker and its new Long Range Strike bomber for praise during a speech at a defense conference in Arlington, Va., on Feb. 14.
“I can tell you for sure, for certain, that the tanker program is performing very, very well,” said David Van Buren, the Air Force acting acquisition czar. “The contractor execution through the initial milestones are excellent, the program is being very well managed.”
He also said the Air Force’s high-priority Long Range Strike bomber program is doing well.
“The Long Range Strike program is meeting its early goals, although they are obviously classified,” Van Buren said. “And that’s why funding for the LRS activity was very strong.”
The Air Force is going to spend $292 million in FY 2013 and will spend some $6.3 billion on the program between now and 2017.
According to Pentagon budget documents, the new stealth bomber will use mostly proven subsystems such as engines, radars and other avionics in an attempt to keep the jet affordable. The bomber will be capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons and will be optionally manned. The Air Force hopes to buy anywhere from 80 to 100 of the new aircraft at a unit price of $550 million in FY 2010 dollars.
The Air Force is delaying another widely anticipated project, the new T-X jet trainer that would have eventually replaced the long-serving T-38 Talon.
“T-X has been pushed further to the right,” Van Buren said.
The FY 2013 proposal delays T-X initial operational capability from FY 2017 until FY 2020. Purchase of the first aircraft is being delayed by one year. Production will also ramp up more slowly. Research-and-development funding is included in the 2013 budget proposal for program expenses, Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy said.
Van Buren added that a presidential aircraft to replace the current Boeing 747-based VC-25 is being pushed off. Meanwhile, the MQ-X next-generation unmanned aircraft never coalesced into an actual program, he added.
