May 28, 2021
STAFF: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Captain Jacob Bailey with Secretary of Air Force Public Affairs. In just a moment Major General James Peccia, Deputy Assistance Secretary of Budget will be presenting the Department of the Air Force Fiscal Year 2022 President's Budget Overview briefing. If you were unable to pick up a packet of budget materials earlier please get with me I'll be sure you get one.
Following the briefing, Major General Peccia and Mr. Carlos Rodgers our Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary of Budget will be taking your questions. In the interest of time and so that we can get through as many questions as possible I ask that you limit it to one and one follow-up. We also have reporters joining us virtually today and we'll be taking their questions as well.
Without further ado, Major General James Peccia.
MAJOR GENERAL JAMES D. PECCIA III: Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Major James - Major General James Peccia, the Deputy Assistance Secretary for the Air Force for Budget and I'll be rolling out our Air Force's portion of the President's for FY '22.
If we could go to the first slide, please; the Department of the Air Force fiscal year 2022 budget request $173.7 billion to accommodate the Department of the Air Force's ability to operate jointly across all domains, the development of the United States Space Force, the recapitalized elements of the nuclear enterprise and to accelerate weapon system modernization.
The focus is not only on the capabilities needed today but also those required for future competition. Necessary risk is taken in legacy missions to enable the investment in modernization required to outpace our adversaries in the 2030 timeframe. During today's presentation I will address the strategic environment, priorities in (themes ?) used to build the Department of the Air Force budget along with the appropriation details.
Next slide, please. Without the Department of the Air Force's unprecedented control of the air and space domains no other U.S. military mission can enjoy full freedom of maneuver. The Air and Space force have the unique ability to project power from afar independent of forward access and lengthy prepositioning timelines.
The strategic environment is rapidly shifting as a result of global health and climate crisis, declining resources and rapid technology development. China and Russia continue to be aggressive in their effort to negate long enduring U.S. war fighting advantages while challenging the United States interest in geopolitical position. The Department of the Air Force has to be ready to deter our competitors attempt to hold the U.S. homeland at risk with unconventional, conventional and even nuclear forces.
Amidst an environment of exponential technological advancement, the Department of the Air Force must continue to adapt and move with purpose now to win tomorrow. The foundation of this budget request is the Secretary of Defense's priorities, the Air Force core missions and the Space Force mission focused areas. The Department of the Air Force efforts are guided by the three overarching Department of Defense priorities of defending the nation, taking care of people and succeeding through teamwork.
Next slide, please. Secretary of Defense Austin has stated, we need resources to match strategy, strategy to policy and policy to the will of the American people. As illustrated, F.Y. '22 budgetary programs are aligned to the interim national security strategy and the Secretary of Defense's priorities. The Department of the Air Force is committed to investing in empowering airmen and guardians, capability-focused modernization, connecting the joint force, and expanding partnerships. This budget is the beginning of a journey to the Air and Space Forces of 2030.
The F.Y. '22 budget provides the Joint Force with an unequivocal advantage in air power and space power. This budget funds the Space Force as an equal branch of the armed forces, developing the capabilities, war fighting doctrine, and expertise needed outpace future threats. Also this budget focuses on capability-focused modernization which will allow the United States to continue to negotiate from a position of strength.
I'll get into the specifics of these highlights as we look at the budget breakdown by appropriation, but first I'd like to turn your attention to the overall details of this budget request. Next slide.
In the following charts you'll see two sets of numbers with the F.Y. '21 enacted budget request on the left and the F.Y. '22 president's budget request on the right. The stacked columns here highlight the department's budget request, consisting of the Air Force and Space Force budgets. The direct war and enduring costs formally broken out as Overseas Contingency Operations or OCO are called out to the right of each bar chart. In F.Y. '22 these amounts are included in the baseline operations or baseline appropriations.
Looking at the bar chart for F.Y. '22, excluding the $39 billion in non-blue funding, the Department of the Air Force is requesting $173.7 billion. This is a $5.5 billion or 3.3 percent increase over the '21 enacted budget. The Air Force budget of $156.3 billion is 2.3 percent increase over F.Y. '21. And the Space Force budget of $17.4 billion is a 13.1 percent increase over F.Y. '21.
On the right side of the slide the upper pie chart breaks out the Air Force baseline and Space Force baseline by appropriation. The next slides will detail our efforts with a look at each appropriation for the department's budget request. Next slide, please.
On each appropriation slide you'll see a similar format. The funding tables now show the overall department budget by Air Force and Space Force. You'll also see key budgetary highlights for the department and for both services.
Operation and maintenance is the largest appropriation, making up 38 percent or $66.6 billion of the overall budget. These dollars go directly toward funding day-to-day operations and are critical to sustaining readiness.
The $3.1 billion in growth from F.Y. '21 is largely driven by increases to civilian pay, mission support, installation support and facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
This request continues to prioritize investments in people, the Department of the Air Force's greatest resource. First, it funds an additional $542 million to support a 2.7 percent civilian pay raise, 1 percent civilian award increase, and a 1 percent federal employees retirement system increase.
Additionally the budget funds $94 million to increase several training efforts to include the establishment of joint all domain training, learning next innovation, and investing in Wi-Fi service facilities to improve training centers. Also, the Air Force continues its initiative to transform its information technology model into an as-a-Service construct with a $383 million increase.
This effort allows airmen to focus on employment and defense of networks rather than maintenance. This budget also takes action to address the difficult challenges of sexual assault, suicide, and disparate treatment of airmen and guardians.
Funding is increased by $7.7 million to develop prevention programs within the Department of the Air Force focused on the prevention of readiness detracting behaviors, including sexual assault, interpersonal violence, and self-harm.
Additionally, $6 million is added to the diversity and inclusion initiatives to include new training and recruiting scholarships. The Department Air Force Facility, Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization Program increases by $687 million and maintains a facility sustainment baseline funding level of 80.2 percent.
In line with the Secretary of Defense's priorities of tackling the climate crisis this budget funds an additional $23 million for climate and energy assessments to include funding for electric vehicles and charging stations.
Air Force weapon system sustainment requirements continue to grow due to our aging platforms and acquisition of new, highly technical, and complex weapon systems. The Air Force weapon system sustainment request is $15.4 billion and funds 83.7 percent of the requirement. This request sustains 109 programs from the newest F-35s to the oldest B-52s.
Turning to the Space Force, the F.Y. '22 O&M budget grows by $837 million. Weapon system sustainment increases by $68 million to fund 79.1 percent of the requirement. This budget adds $20 million to establish the National Space Intelligence Center to address the growing threat to U.S. space-based equities and adds $6 million to increase the analytic capacity of the Space War Funding Analysis Center.
Major transfers to the Space Force include $143 million for satellite communication and a combined $347 million for facility operations, facility sustainment, restoration, and modernization. Additionally, this budget includes $313 million for radar and optical space domain awareness operations and data integration.
Bottom line, the operation and maintenance prioritizes people, sustains department readiness, and funds daily operations while advancing the Space Force. Next slide, please.
Total military end strength for F.Y. '22, which includes Air Force active, guard, and reserve and Space Force active duty, is 515,300 military members. The Department of the Air Force military personnel request is $38.4 billion, which is $942 million more than F.Y. '21.
The F.Y. '22 request increases the Department of the Air Force end strength by about 3,400 personnel. The main driver is attributed to the retention of medical personnel. The F.Y. '21 National Defense Authorization Act delayed reduction of the medical personnel due to the impact it would have on pandemic support operations.
The F.Y. '22 request also includes a $2.7 million or 2.7 percent military pay raise, a 3.8 percent increase to the basic allowance for housing, and a 2.3 percent increase to the basic allowance for (assistance ?). Additionally, this budget funds $1.2 billion for the permanent change of station moves, and $573 million for bonuses of critically manned career fields.
The funding represents an investment in airmen and guardians, and assist in attracting and retaining high quality recruits to support technology driven services. And this request as Space Force grows by nearly 2,000 to 8,400 guardians. This is largely driven by mission transfers from the Air Force, Army, Navy - and Navy. Also, the Air National Guard increases by 200 personnel for logistics, special operations, rescue, special warfare, cyber, and intelligence.
Now let's turn to research, development, test, and evaluation. Next slide please. The department RDT&E request for FY '22 is $40.1 billion. This is a $3 billion increase over the FY '21 enacted levels. The Air Force portion of the budget request is $28.8 billion, a $2.2 billion increase, largely driven by the modernization - modernization efforts in nuclear and air superiority programs.
To retain a high - highly reliable and secure deterrent, the nation must replace the Minuteman-III. This budget adds $1.1 billion for ground-based strategic deterrent to ramp up engineering, manufacturing, and development activities for a 2029 initial operating capability and a 2036 full operational capability. Additionally, the budget increases long-range standoff weapons development by $224 million to keep the program on track.
This budget also adds $48 million for the nuclear command, control, and communications programs. The Air Force also - request also continues to invest in air superiority with next generation air dominance and hypersonic capabilities. NGAD is not a single platform, but a mix of capabilities including manned and unmanned aircraft.
Its budget grows NGAD by $623 million and supports the design efforts in advanced open system architecture, radar, infrared sensors, resilient communication, and air vehicle technologies. NGAD will provide survivability, lethality, and persistent whilst seamlessly integrating with the advanced manage - battle management system.
Additionally, hypersonic weapons development increases by $52 million to fund the southern cross integrated flight research experiment and air breathing prototype in partnership with Australia, and the hypersonic attack cruise missile prototype while continuing to fund the airlines rapid response weapon for an early operational capability in 2022.
Other Air Force RDT&E areas of note include growth for the B-21, B-52, F-35, ABMS, and climate initiatives. This request adds $46 million for upgrades to increase aircraft fuel efficiencies to assess alternative fuel options. This budget progresses toward the bomber force of the future with the new B-21 and modernization of the B-52.
The B-21 program increases by $30 million to fund two test aircraft and scale manufacturing for initial production. $233 billion is added to the B-52 budget for the most comprehensive modernization in its history, including new engines, new radar and communications systems.
Looking at the F-35, the budget continues to build a cornerstone of air superiority with a $239 million increase for technical refresh three and block four capabilities needed to counter rapidly evolving threats.
Moving to ABMS, this budget requests a $46 million increase to add - continue - or to continue building a secure digital network, enabling sharing of data across fifth-generation tactical aircraft and providing superior situational awareness to KC46 and command-and-control notes.
ABMS is the Department of the Air Force primary technology enabler of JADC2. Continued ABMS investment will allow delivery of multi-domain secure processing and data management, connectivity, and applications to synchronize sensors, shooters, and networks for the joint force. On the next slide, we'll look at the Space Force RDT&E. Next slide, please.
The request for Space Force is $11.3 billion, a $725 million increase over FY '21. In addition to growth and classified programs, next-generation overhead persistence infrared grows by $132 million, providing initial launch capability for the first polar satellite in 2028.
This creates a resilient constellation when combined with the geosynchronous satellites and associated ground system to increase missile warning, missile defense, battle space awareness, and technical intelligence. Additionally, funding for deep space advanced radar capability increases by $90 million to detect, track, and maintain custody of deep space objects.
An additional $14 million is also added to upgrade legacy ground-based optical and radar systems. These upgrades modernize space domain awareness data transport to enable decision-making on tactical timelines. This budget increases protected tactical SATCOM by $43 million to develop capabilities beyond the current advanced extremely high frequency system to provide worldwide secure, jam resistant, and survivable communications.
This request also adds $75 million to enterprise ground services, also known as EGS, to provide cyber secure tactical command-and-control for all Space Force satellite programs by 2028. An additional $53 million is added for military GPS user equipment, developing receiver circuit cards to provide war fighters with secure and accurate positioning, navigation, and timing data in contested environments.
Like O&M, $37 million is added to the space war fighting analysis centers RDT&E budget for analysis, modeling, wargaming, and experimentation to generate new optional concepts and force design options for the Defense Department. Now let's look at highlights for procurement, next side please.
The Department of the Air Force procurement request is $25.6 billion, a $2.7 billion decrease from the FY '21 enacted level. This drop is a result of the department balancing sustainment and modernization with future procurement. Procurement funding increases include the JASSM-ER and the hypersonic air-launched rapid response weapon known as ARRW.
Additionally, the joint air to surface standoff missile budget request - request adds $211 million to ramp to maximum production capacity. ARRW is a new start, and $161 million is added to procure 12 weapons in FY '22. This budget continues to modernize the Air Force by replacing aging legacy aircraft and procuring the capabilities needed to meet readiness requirements. This request continues recapitalization of the DOD's only combat search and rescue helicopter to purchase a total of 14 HH-60 whiskeys in FY '22. This request also includes purchase of 40 F-35, 14 KC-46s, 12 F-15EXs, and three MC-130Js. The Space Forts request is $2.8 billion, a $456 million increase over FY '21.
$341 million is added to procure five national security space launch vehicles providing an assured access to space for the nation's war fighting and intelligent satellites. It precures two GPS3 Three follow on space vehicles and increases technical support by $64 million to provide enhanced on orbit management. These satellites provide new capabilities, including a spot beam, providing anti-jam improvement 100 times better than the current encrypted military code. With this request, the Department of the Air Force strives to build and maintain a force capable of successfully challenging and deterring today's great power competitors while recognizing tomorrow's threats continue to evolve.
Next slide please. Here we highlight the procurement quantities funded in the FY '22 request. Several of these quantities I covered during the previous side, to summarize, this budget procures Air Force aircraft to modernize the fleet for a high-end conflict in 2030 and beyond. Additionally, the Air Force is reducing munition procurements as program approach war fighter inventory objectives. For example, the joint direct attack munition and small diameter bomb increment one are at or approaching healthy inventory levels. Decreasing production of these weapons allows for increased investment in advanced weapons like (jazz ?) MER and hypersonics such as the Arrow Program. Next slide please.
The military construction and family housing request increases by $1.1 billion in FY '22 and includes $185 million for enduring construction costs. This budget focuses on accelerating installation readiness, resilience, modernization, and continues to prioritize planning and design funds to reinforce program stability and consistency. This budget request continues to display the Department of the Air Force commitment to take care of the force and their families while also focusing investment on modern weapon system bed downs and enhancements to global war fighter capabilities.
This budget funds 56 major construction projects, including six B-21, five F-35, three GBSD, two F-16, one KC-46, and one C-130J weapon system bed down across six bases. Also included is $572 million for Indo-Pacific projects to increase joint force lethality and enhance the nation's posture in the INDOPACOM theater.
Additionally, this request continues to focus on the health and safety of the Department of the Air Force members and their families, including $105 million in military family housing projects and $172 million for two new basic training dormitory complexes. No cut in family housing or the final budget appropriation accounts. Now we'll turn to the direct war and enduring costs. Next slide please.
This slide highlights direct war and enduring costs. While direct or enduring costs are now in the Department of the Air Force baseline budget, we separated the requirement for better visibility. The first category is direct war, which includes direct combat support costs which will not continue when combat operations end. The second category is enduring costs which include requirements for in theater and in conus activities likely to continue after combat operations cease.
In total, the Department of the Air Force's request of $10.1 billion is $2.3 billion less than the FY '21 enacted amount. The Air Force direct war request is $1.1 billion. This includes ONM funds for combat operations, logistics and air mobility in line with evolving posture and troop level requirements. This request secures one C-130J aircraft and one E-11 battlefield airborne communication node while replacing the munitions used during operations. Also included in our T&E (funding ?) is a distributed common ground system and the Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities Program.
The Air Force is $9 billion enduring costs request sustains multiple locations outside Iraq and Afghanistan and fund weapon systems sustainment in (life ?) with our requirements. Additionally, this request includes $542 million for the European Deterrence Initiative which includes $185 million for the five MILCON projects. Turning to the Space Force enduring costs, the 700 -- or the $76 million request funds deployed operations of space, electronic warfare, theater missile warning to deployed forces, and protected tactical satellite communications.
This request continues to support worldwide operations and funds combatant commanders most urgent requirements. Let me close with a few final thoughts before opening up to your questions. Next slide please. Air and Space dominance is not guaranteed. We must be postured to fight and win in these domains.
Without control of the air and space, no military mission can enjoy full freedom of maneuver. The Department of the Air Force faces increasing budget pressure based on growing costs of sustainment for current and aging force structure, continuous combat operations, and long deferred modernization. Continued prioritization is necessary in the context of key competitions over time.
Decisions and trade-offs are framed with both near and long term view of what is needed to ensure the Department of the Air Force is prepared to answer our nations call, both today and tomorrow. It is essential to right size aging, costly, and less than capable legacy systems so we can build, deliver, and direct resources for the capabilities needed for future competition. This budget takes action to empower airmen and guardians, modernize, connect the joint force, and expand partnerships to achieve success and secure the nation's future.
We asked for continued partnership and support with Congress and stakeholders to make required changes to build the Department of the Air Force designed to act with the speed and indecisiveness necessary for continued dominance in the air and space domains. Thank you, very much. We'd be happy to take your questions.
STAFF: Thank you, sir. All right, we'll open it up to questions. Brian.
Q: Thanks for doing this. I was hoping to talk about the divestments...
MAJ. PECCIA: Sure.
Q: ... on the tankers. Can you talk about what -- what is the schedule for these? Will they be retired as KC-46s come online or are the divestments, kind of, front-loaded as the deliveries are pretty -- pretty slow?
MAJ. PECCIA: Well -- and so the KC-46s are being delivered, as you know, already. And we'll be continuing to deliver. Part of it is to clear the way for ramp space for the KC-46s to come in. Part of it is to use the manpower that is already in the KC-135 and KC-10 programs and transfer that over so we can get them trained and ready to go.
So part of it is really to clear the way and to lead us -- or to give us some space for the KC-46s to come in. And so within this budget for the -- for example, the KC-135, we're requesting a divestment of 18 and for KC-10s it'll be 10 -- I'm sorry, 14.
Q: And on the A-10, are these 42 going to come from basically a couple units? And will there be a mission backfill if that is the case?
MAJ. PECCIA: So yes, that is the current plan, absolutely.
Q: Steve Trimble, Aviation Week. On the -- on the B-21, I think you said that there's money in there to buy two B-21 test aircraft?
MAJ. PECCIA: That's correct.
Q: Is that the advance procurement money for $108 (billion ?)?
MAJ. PECCIA: Yes, Carlos, you...
(CROSSTALK)
ADAS (USAF) CARLOS RODGERS: No, no. So the -- so the development money will be used for the -- to built the test aircraft.
Q: OK. So we've already got two on the line, so that's four test aircraft total...
MR. RODGERS: No...
(CROSSTALK)
MAJ. PECCIA: No, two. Two total.
Q: There's already two on the line in (CON though ?).
MR. RODGERS: That's...
(CROSSTALK)
MAJ. PECCIA: Yes, it's the two. It's the RDT&E for those two.
Q: Oh, they weren't in previous budgets?
MR. RODGERS: They're being built so they're part of the budget. That's what was (set ?).
Q: But that advance procurement, is that for one or two aircraft?
MR. RODGERS: We can't disclose the number of aircraft, but.
STAFF: (Rachel ?)?
Q: So the Air Force has said that, you know, in part due to the pandemic you've had record-high retention and I'm wondering how that affected your (entry ?) numbers. You know, it's up 3,600-ish...
MAJ. PECCIA: Sure.
Q: ... you know, but a much of that is medical people. Did you say, you know, let's just keep it level this year? Did you say let's only add a little bit? You know, how -- how did that affect things?
MAJ. PECCIA: Yes, so -- so definitely you're right. I mean, the pandemic has slowed what we would see in terms of people leaving the Air Force and people have stayed in. And to your point, it's up to 3,000 people in F.Y. '21.
And so when we looked out into the future, I wouldn't say that played a part into our future end strength. Our future end strength was really -- or the growth was really based on putting the medical personnel back in. We've been paying for those medical personnel because they haven't actually left since F.Y. '20 but we've been paying for them in the year of execution.
This year we've actually added the end strength back with the dollars and that will most likely be temporary, we'll see where we go within (next ?) year or so. But if that program takes off and we do reduce those medical personnel they'll come out in future, most likely in '23.
Q: OK, but outside of the medical people it didn't really have an effect on everything else, you mean?
MAJ. PECCIA: No, no.
Q: And for the flying hour program, you know, flying hours are down by about 87,000. Can you talk about what's behind that and how that might affect training and ops?
MAJ. PECCIA: So a couple of things, I think number one is the change in global posture overseas, right. That reduced 66,000 of those 87,000 hours that you mentioned. The other 22,000 hours were really risks that we could take on peacetime flying.
What we've done over the last several years is we've built our flying hour program to match what we believe our requirement is, but we haven't been able to execute that full amount. So in F.Y. '21 we reduced the flying hours to actually execute more in line with what we can do in each given fiscal year. In F.Y. '22 we've done the same thing but we've taken just a little bit more risk in the flying hours and lowered it by about 22,000 for peacetime missions.
Q: Thanks.
STAFF: OK, (Valerie ?).
Q: Hi, so I wanted to ask about the combat rescue helicopter. In F.Y. '21 the plan was buy 20 of those. And so, you know, today you guys are only buying 14 -- or 14 in '22. What is the reason for that? Is there any issues in terms of development or production?
MAJ. PECCIA: So no issues. I think the enactment for F.Y. '21 was 19, I believe. And then that was three more than we had planned. It was put in our OCO program. And so in F.Y. '22 we had reduced the quantity to buy down to 14 because we had bought three additional in F.Y. '21.
We had hoped to buy a couple more with OCO this year but because of the changes in contingencies and our -- our posture downrange there's less funding in OCO. And so we weren't able to add more back in. But we're absolutely committed to the program. We'll continue to buy the program of record out, and so there are no issues with the helicopter.
Q: OK. And for the...
MAJ. PECCIA: And Carlos, anything that you'd like to add...
(CROSSTALK)
MR. RODGERS: No, that...
MAJ. PECCIA: ... to that?
MR. RODGERS: ... that's correct. There's -- no, it -- the fact that we are buying 14, it does not have any bearing on the status of the program.
Q: OK. And with the F-16s, can you talk a little bit about why those are being divested this year? I mean with the F-15s we've heard quite a lot...
MAJ. PECCIA: Sure.
Q: ... about the structural issues there. Haven't heard so much about F-16, why those should go immediately.
MAJ. PECCIA: Yes, so these are -- we have well over 900 F-16s. The F-16s that we're talking about here are pre-Block F-16s. These are not aircraft that we'll be able to modernize and be able to use in a heavily contested environment in the 23 -- '30 time frame so that's why we're divesting these upfront. And it's really to put a little bit of risk in the fighter force where we can to then reapply those dollars for modernized programs such as NGAD that will really be applicable in the 2030s and 2040s time frame.
Q: Thank you.
STAFF: (Jen ?)?
Q: Thank you. (inaudible) with state (news ?). I have a question about the Space Force funding. The...
MAJ. PECCIA (?): Sure.
Q: ... The Space Force got a significant increase and, you know, with DOD constrained by a flat budget, how were you able to allocate more funding to the Space Force? Was money taken from Air Force programs, from other services programs? How did you come up with that -- that amount to be able to increase the Space Force money?
MAJ. PECCIA: Right. So great question, a long answer -- I don't know if I'll be to get to all of it, but we'll get you a better answer so you can have the details. But the bottom line is, so there's a $2 billion increase within the Space Force, half of that is related to transfers into the Space Force from Air Force, from Army, and from Navy. I can give you a couple examples.
So the Wideband Enterprise SATCOM came from the Army. That transferred into the Air Force. MUOS program came from the Navy that -- or into the Space Force -- came from the Navy, transferred into the Space Force.
A large chunk of that money that you see is Facility Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization and Facility Operations. That was in the Air Force O&M line and we had -- we had to use Air Force dollars to support Space Force locations in '21. In '22 we transferred those dollars to the Space Force.
So those are a couple of examples. There's a long list that we have here that we are happy to share with you.
Q: (Because ?) the O&M funding -- that's where most of the increase is, in the O&M account.
MAJ. PECCIA: Sure.
Q: Is that because of these facilities upgrades? I mean, if -- I'm just not clear. Why is that in O&M and not in -- not in MILCON?
MAJ. PECCIA: So these are our restoration and modernization programs that don't meet a military construction threshold. For example, a building -- something happens to a building, you need to renovate the building, fix the building. That's what the restoration and modernization funds pay for versus MILCON which is new construction.
And so that, again, had been in the Air Force line last year, and it was time to transfer it over to the Space Force.
And then on top of that, there are about -- the chart showed a lot of the plus-ups in the unclassified programs, but there are well over $800 million in classified programs that went to the Space Force this year for new programs. But we can't talk about those.
Q: Thank you.
MAJ. PECCIA: You bet.
STAFF: And now we'll go to the call-in line. (Courtney Albon ?), Inside Defense.
Q: Hi, yes. I first wanted to ask about the MQ-9 production line. I didn't see that referenced in the overview book, and I wondered if you could tell us if you all are planning to, again, look to shut down the production line there. And then, related to that, if there is funding for MQ-Next in this year's budget?
MAJ. PECCIA: So, first question, is there money to shut down the procurement line for MQ-9 in the '22 budget? The answer is no, there is not. When we -- we're not procuring any more MQ-9s in FY22, but we're also not looking to shutdown the production line. In fact, we have modernization efforts that are tied to the MQ-9 in the '22 budget.
In terms of MQ-Next, I think I would probably back it up a little bit and talk ISR. As we look for the future for ISR, we need to build survivable ISR in our platforms. So what we are looking at is really a family of interconnected systems that we will use in the future. That could come from space. It could come from aircraft. It could come from non-traditional means.
And so that's really the approach as we move forward. But we're not looking specifically at a platform-for-platform replacement, rather, we're looking at technology that's available today to build a survivable ISR platform as we move forward to that 2030 time period.
Carlos, did you want to add anything?
MR. RODGERS: No, other than for MQ-9, we also have in the budget, as General Peccia mentioned, some investments, about $200 million, which continues to modify the aircraft so that they are upgraded to provide the capability that we need today.
MAJ. PECCIA: Right. And the other thing I guess on the MQ-9 is, you know, a lot of people are talking about the replacement for the MQ-9. The MQ-9 is going to be with us for a long time, at least another 15 years, perhaps longer. And so we're not looking to get rid of the MQ-9s by any means. And we certainly have a lot of time to figure out what we will do next in terms of ISR.
STAFF: OK. Next, (Stew Magnuson ?) with National Defense.
Stew, are you on?
Q: Yes. I was looking for the MH-139 Grey Wolf. Can't find it anywhere. Is that just not starting yet? What's its status?
MAJ. PECCIA: Yes, great question. Carlos, why don't you answer that?
MR. RODGERS: So you will not see the MH-139 in the budget this year. Basically what we are doing is we are deferring the procurement of the MH-139 until '23. It's not into the budget in FY22 due to a FAA certification issue that we have experienced. And so at this point we do not have a procurement plan in '22 budget.
Q: On page 33, you say there are 10 trainer aircraft, is that the Red Hawk? What is that?
MAJ. PECCIA: I'm not...
(CROSSTALK)
MAJ. PECCIA: ... page 33.
MR. RODGERS: Yes, I'm not...
(CROSSTALK)
Q: Yes, it's not the briefing, it's the overview.
MAJ. PECCIA: Yes, so we're not procuring any new T-7s in this budget.
(CROSSTALK)
MAJ. PECCIA: ... won't come until later. So I'm not familiar with that particular one.
STAFF: Thanks, Stew. If you've got a question you want to follow up with me, give it to me afterwards and I'll get that to you, Stew.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's all we have time for today.
Again, General, I appreciate your time today.
If you've got any follow-ons, please come see me afterwards. And we'll get those to you. Thank you.
MAJ. PECCIA: Thank you all very much. Appreciate your time today.
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