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Strategies for Maintaining the Navy's and Marine Corps' Inventories of Fighter Aircraft 1 (May 2010)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo10049 and id is 1 raw text is: CBO Summary Strategies for Maintaining the Navy's and Marine Corps' Inventories of Fighter Aircraft The United States Navy and Marine Corps maintain a fleet of more than 1,100 tactical fighters that provide capabilities for air-to-air combat and air-to-ground attack. As of January 2010, that force consisted of about 640 F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornets, nearly 400 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, and roughly 150 AV-8B Harriers. Current modernization plans call for replacing all of the Hornets and Harriers with about 100 more Super Hornets and 680 F-35B/C Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs). The high usage rate of fighters in military operations over the past decade coupled with delays in the development of the JSF, however, have raised concerns within the Department of the Navy that its inventory of fighters will drop significantly below the level needed for the planned force structure over the next 10 to 15 years.1 In particu- lar, in the absence of modifications to their airframe structure, Hornets are now projected to reach the end of their service life faster than they can be replaced with JSFs. To mitigate potential inventory shortfalls, the department is investigating ways to extend the service life of its Hornets as well as changes it could make to how the fleet is organized and employed to reduce the number of aircraft needed for operations. The Navy could also reduce projected inventory shortfalls by purchasing more Super Hornets than current plans call for until the JSF can be delivered in large numbers. At the direction of the House Committee on Armed Ser- vices, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) examined the funding required for four alternative plans that might 1. The Navy and Marine Corps are the two military services within the Department of the Navy. be adopted to reduce the projected decline in the fighter inventory. CBO did not construct alternatives to satisfy a particular inventory objective, nor did it attempt to judge the adequacy of a particular objective. The alternative plans consist of different combinations of three approaches: Extend the service life of Hornets by up to 600 flight hours (roughly two additional years) beyond the current 8,000-hour limit by modifying and inspecting F/A-I 8A-D aircraft in the high-flight-hour (HFH) program (comprising a series of structural repairs and more-frequent inspections); Implement a service-life extension program (SLEP) of more-extensive modifications, which would enable Hornets to reach 10,000 flight hours; and Purchase more Super Hornets than current plans call for. As of January 2010, the Navy had completed HFH modifications on about 25 Hornets, and Super Hornets are now in production. In contrast, research and planning for the Hornet SLEP is not expected to be complete until 2014, although the Navy has indicated that it may begin SLEP modifications on some aircraft as early as 2012. In this analysis, CBO did not explore the potential of field- ing other types of systems (such as unmanned aircraft) in lieu of fighters.2 2. For a broader analysis of Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force fighter inventories, see Congressional Budget Office, Alternatives for Modernizing U.S. Fighter Forces (May 2009). MAY 2010

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