The U.S. Air Force submitted to Congress its unfunded priorities list worth $4.6 billion, including $921 million for seven additional F-35 fighter jets, Air Force Magazine reported Friday.

The service requested to procure 33 F-35s in its fiscal year 2023 proposed budget, down from a total of 48 aircraft units it bought in FY 2022 and down from 60 jets in FY 2021.

“The Air Force unfunded list would add just seven F-35 jets, less than half of what’s needed to match the 48 requested in each of the past three years,” said Bruce Wright, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and president of the Air & Space Forces Association.

“Indeed, in 2020 and 2021, Congress increased the Air Force request from 48 to 60 and we would urge lawmakers to do the same in 2023,” added Wright.

Other unfunded priorities in the Air Force’s list are weapons systems sustainment, EC-37B Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft and hypersonic testing with F-15s, F-16s and B-52s.

The Space Force’s FY 2023 unfunded priorities list requested $327 million in funds for classified programs, $200 million for missile warning and missile tracking systems and $112 million for weapons systems sustainment efforts.

An E-3G Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft of the U.S. Air Force conducted in-flight data transmissions and an in-air update for the first time during a recent proof-of-concept test in Florida.

The service branch said Thursday the electronic warfare milestone helped showcase the ability of the E-3G aircraft to adapt to new threats and complete mission data reprogramming in a short period on future battlefields.

During the test, the E-3G operated by the AWACS Combined Test Force used its Internet Protocol Enabled Communications satellite communications system to transmit EW data to the 36th Electronic Warfare Squadron, which sent back analyzed and corrected data to the aircraft within an hour.

The team then used the newly received information to update its electronic support measures database using a mission computing system onboard the aircraft.

“The next step is to build on this concept within the E-3G community and work with other airborne platforms to use IPEC and existing datalinks to provide in-air updates for other platforms,” shared Lt. Col. Dameion Briggs, commander of the 605th Test and Evaluation Squadron, Detachment 1.

Based on the Boeing 707 aircraft, E-3G uses an externally mounted radar to provide airborne early warning, command and control to the Air Force.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the U.S. Navy develop a cost estimate that includes the full costs to build and operate unmanned maritime systems and come up with a portfolio of uncrewed systems to enable the service branch to balance resources and focus on the digital infrastructure and other common elements.

The Navy plans to spend approximately $4.3 billion on the procurement of 21 uncrewed vehicles in the next five years to help counter existing and future maritime threats, acccording to a GAO report published Thursday.

The congressional watchdog also called on the Navy, which is conducting prototyping work on six types of unmanned systems, to set evaluation criteria for assessing the readiness of each vehicle prototype to transition to an acquisition program and establish a master planning schedule for prototype efforts.

“With detailed planning, prototyping has the potential to further technology development and reduce acquisition risk before the Navy makes significant investments,” the GAO report reads.

GAO added that optimizing the prototyphing phase for uncrewed systems will enable the military branch to generate information needed to support future decisions.