The budget proposal, which the Biden government announced Monday, seeks to increase spending on ultrasonic prototype development from nearly $ 509 million approved by lawmakers in fiscal 2022 to $ 577 million in 2023. Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones said the call for more research, development, testing and evaluation for the supersonic shows that the service is “committed” to the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon or ARRW missile. ultrasonic attack. or HACM, programs. But the Air Force has no plans to procure any ARRW, the service’s top-of-the-line supersonic weapons program, in 2023. In a briefing to reporters Monday, Lt. Gen. James Peccia, deputy assistant secretary of budget, said the program is funded by 2023, and the service will re-evaluate the program in the coming years. Peccia also said that a “portion” of the remaining procurement funding for ARRW this year is likely to be redistributed for research and development. The 2022 General Expenditure Bill, passed by Congress earlier this month, reached the $ 161 million the Pentagon originally requested for the ARRW supply and transferred half of that amount to RDT & E. Lawmakers noted test failures and delays that pushed the program back. The move was made in consultation with the Air Force, Congress said. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has repeatedly said in recent months that the service must ask tough questions about the role that supersonic aircraft should play in the Air Force arsenal and whether they are cost-effective for targets that the United States may want to pursue. hit. “ARRW has yet to prove itself,” Kendall told a March 9 conference in Washington. The story goes on Meanwhile, the Air Force ground ground deterrence program, the agency’s effort to develop a next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile to replace the old Minuteman III, will also receive $ 1.1 billion, to more than $ 3.6 billion. dollars in 2023. Northrop Grumman awarded the contract for GBSD in 2020. The Air Force said the increase would keep it well on track to reach initial operational capacity in 2029. The Air Force also wants to add $ 128 million to buy 4,200 JDAMs, up from 1,919 requested by the service last year. That would put JDAM’s procurement funding at $ 252 million. Peccia told reporters on March 25 that the Air Force was now “catching up” JDAM production after lower production rates in 2021 and 2022. The budget will also add $ 119 million to the purchase of 28 High Performance Anti-Aircraft Missiles, or LRASMs, which were not funded by the Air Force’s 2022 budget. And it would provide $ 785 million, an increase of $ 74 million over the 2022 budget, to purchase 550 Standoff long-range surface-to-air missile cruise missiles. That would be bigger than the 525 JASSM-ERs in the 2022 budget, and the extra money would fund JASSM-ERs at maximum capacity, Peccia said. The Long-range Standoff Weapon program will also see a more than 50% increase in funding, from the $ 599 million approved in the 2022 general purpose expenditure bill to $ 929 million at the request of the 2023 budget.
