Weaponizing

Weaponizing: The Air Force would like to spend about $5.6 billion to buy roughly 7,700 missiles and bombs in Fiscal 2009, according to USAF budget officials and documents. This includes 275 AIM-9X Sidewinders and 281 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, 260 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, and 642 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles for MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles. USAF also wants to procure 3,647 Joint Direct Attack Munitions and 2,612 Small Diameter Bombs. The Air Force can request the purchase of additional JASSMs even though the missile program is still undergoing the process of recertification per Nunn-McCurdy laws that kick into place once the cost of a weapons program increases significantly. USAF may request the additional cruise missiles because the 2009 budget proposal reflects the current program of record for JASSM and the requested purchase is not a deviation from that, Air Force budget officials said.

2/6/2008

Verbatim

To Be Clear
“Just like in my business, the issues that go badly get all of the attention. I think, to be clear with you, there are many things that are managed well every day in the Air Force.”
—John Young, Pentagon acquisition executive, speaking to defense reporters on the state of Air Force acquisition, Washington, D.C., Nov. 20, 2008.

Verbatim

F-22 Options
“They have two choices. On January 21st, they can obligate the $90 million and decide there's some chance ... that they will buy the airplanes and they'd rather preserve the option to buy [them] at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Or, they could chose not to obligate the $90 million and accept that they still have a decision to be made between then and March 1st. But that decision may cost the taxpayer more money.”
—DOD acquisition czar John Young on how releasing only $50 million of the $140 million authorized by Congress to keep the F-22 production line active until March 2009 still preserves options for the new Administration, Capitol Hill, Nov. 19, 2008.