The House Armed Services Committee voted 60-2 Thursday to pass a $583 billion defense policy bill, Defense News reported Thursday.Joe Gould writes HASC’s version of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act would shift $18 billion from the overseas contingency operations funding to the Defense Department’s base budget.
Such a proposal would leave the OCO budget with $36 billion in funds authorized only through April 30, 2017, which the report said would require the next president to file a supplemental bill for the war funds.
The 2017 NDAA would also allocate $2.9 billion to allow the U.S. Navy to procure 14 additional Boeing-built F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft and 11 more Lockheed Martin-produced F-35 jets.
Gould reports that the U.S. Army would receive an additional $440 million for more Sikorsky-built UH-60M Black Hawks, $162 million for Boeing-made AH-64 Apache helicopters, $95 million for the Northrop Grumman-developed MQ-4C Triton and $150 million for two additional Bell/Boeing-built V-22 Ospreys.
The proposed legislation also calls for a budgetary review of plans to resume the operations of Lockheed’s F-22 fighter jets.
The bill would also authorize a $20.6 billion increase in shipbuilding funds and set aside funds for the construction of three destroyers, an amphibious ship and a littoral combat ship.
The U.S. Air Force would be required to sustain a minimum number of 171 A-10 planes until Congress receives the results of F-35’s initial operational test and evaluation and another report that compares the functions of A-10C with that of F-35A, the report said.
