(Amerika) United States Air Force (USAF)

[Nightwatch]

Qunitus hat es schon im F-35 Thread gepostet, aber das ist wichtig genug das es auch hier stehen sollte:

Air Force May Be Forced To ‘Defer Or Delay’ F-35, KC-Y; New Fund For LRSB?

It;’s a basic problem we’ve written about before. The Air Force faces a funding crunch in the next six years as the F-35 and the tanker programs ramp up. the B-3 (Long Range Strike Bomber) program gets rolling and the service keeps buying drones and C-130s.

As report author J.J. Gertler of CRS notes, “the four procurement programs (F-35A, KC-46, C-130, and RPA) account for 99% of the Air Force’s aircraft acquisition budget” in fiscal 2016. Add these weapons: the proposed T-X trainer, JSTARS recapitalization, Combat Rescue Helicopter and new Air Force Ones; and you’ve got one big wave. In fact, it may be a budget tsunami, but Gertler doest’t call it that — yet..

[...]

Here are some of the decisions Gertler concludes may be necessary (He’s careful to note there may be other ways to fix things):

◾ Raising the Air Force topline (and/or the aviation modernization share);
◾ Pusharounds or reductions in Air Force programs and activities other than modernization;
◾ Reducing annual quantities of the F-35A;
◾ Further retarding the growth of R&D programs;
◾ Deferring the KC-Y follow-on tanker;
◾ Funding the long-range strike bomber (LRSB) through a non-Air Force budget.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://breakingdefense.com/2015/12/air-force-may-be-forced-to-defer-or-delay-f-35-kc-y-new-fund-for-lrsb/">http://breakingdefense.com/2015/12/air- ... -for-lrsb/</a><!-- m -->

Wie im Artikel auch schon erwähnt, dass Problem ist schon seit längerem absehbar.
Bedeutsam jetzt aber in welche Richtung die Hämmer fallen. Die Air Force scheint auf den LRSB zu setzen während über Kürzungen beim F-35 Programm konkret nachgedacht wird.
Natürlich ist da viel Politik dabei und der Kongress wird da noch seine ganz eigene Meinung haben, aber die Stoßrichtung ist klar. 1763 F-35A werden unrealistischer.

JSTARS follow on nimmt übrigens Fahrt auf:

Raytheon and Northrop to receive JSTARS radar contracts

The US air force is poised to award sole-source contracts to Raytheon and Northrop Grumman for further development of their competing active electronically scanned array radars as part of its Northrop Grumman E-8C JSTARS recapitalisation effort.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/raytheon-and-northrop-to-receive-jstars-radar-contra-421264/">https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... ra-421264/</a><!-- m -->