Appropriations Bill Gives USAF Engine Funding, but Limits Aircraft Retirements

However, the service also faces limits on its ability to retire both the A-10 close-air support plane and the U-2 spy plane, which service officials have described as hard cuts needed to balance its budget under sequestration-related funding levels.

The bill is being referred to as the "cromnibus," referring to the measure's appearance as an omnibus appropriations bill because of its 11 full-year spending measures. The first two letters refer to a continuing resolution (CR) for the Department of Homeland Security, a Republican response to the president's action on immigration.

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The measure provides $220 million to begin development on a replacement program for the RD-180, a Russian-made engine used on the Atlas V space launch vehicle. Joint language on the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act required the Air Force to stop using the RD-180 by the end of 2018.

Gen. John Hyten, head of US Air Force Space Command, said on Dec. 5 that developing, testing and certifying a new engine by 2019 will be a "challenge," but stated that the Air Force understands it has been directed to find a way.

Appropriators followed their defense committee colleagues in blocking the retirement of the A-10 Warthog, extending the fight between the Hill and the service over the future of the close-air support plane.

Additionally, the bill language blocks the Air Force from starting to retire the U-2 fleet until authorized by Congress; it also says the service may not obligate $77.1 million provided for RQ-4 Global Hawk payload upgrades until 30 days after the service submits a transition plan to the defense committees. After several years of trying to retire the Global Hawk in favor of the U-2, the Air Force flipped last year, something observers say was driven largely by congressional pressure not to end the Northrop Grumman RQ-4.

House leaders hope to pass the cromnibus by Thursday, though they are still working on the timing for a final floor vote. From there, it will move to the Senate, where leaders hope members will allow rules to be scrapped allowing for a vote before a Thursday night deadline.

The House and Senate still could pass a separate three-day continuing resolution to keep the government open should procedural hurdles push final cromnibus votes in the Senate into Friday or Saturday.

Other items of note:

■ The bill includes $22.6 million for the Series 3.5 engine upgrade, a Rolls-Royce program that service estimates say could save $2 billion over the life of the C-130H fleet. That's good news for the Air Force, though perhaps not as good news as the other C-130 directive regarding the controversial Avionics Modernization Program (AMP).

■ Appropriators appeared to follow their colleagues who crafted the National Defense Authorization Act in giving the service the "flexibility" to reduce the program in order to "address safety and airspace compliance requirements." The service and its National Guard partners have expressed concerns the AMP, as constructed, would force the grounding of the C-130H fleet under new rules from the Federal Aviation Administration.

■ The bill added $15 million to protect the CV-22 Osprey fleet from "undue risk from diminishing manufacturing sources for parts and modifications." The funds comes with direction to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James to prioritize items with long lead time requirements in order to ameliorate the risk of losing those suppliers.

■ Included in the bill is an extra $240 million for two additional F-35 joint strike fighters, although it does not specify whether those would be F-35A models for the Air Force, F-35B models for the Marines or F-35C models for the Navy. Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the head of the F-35 program, has noted the fighter is one of the few programs not to be hurt by sequestration.

■ The Combat Rescue Helicopter program, recently christened the HH-60W, receives $100 million from appropriators. The next-generation combat-search-and-rescue vehicle, produced by Sikorsky, was a surprise addition to the Air Force's wish list for fiscal 2015, to the point that it was not included in the service's budget request.

■ Appropriators cut funding for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) by $9 million as a penalty for what they described as "excessive cost growth." More importantly, appropriators demanded that the service certify it will launch the DMSP-20 satellite by the end of 2016. If it can't do that, the entire DMSP will be "brought to an orderly close" during 2015.■

John T. Bennett in Washington contributed to this report

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