WASHINGTON — The Defense Department would get limited authority to start out working on urgent recent programs before they’re officially funded under a provision within the proposed fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
This legislative proposal, which the Air Force has strongly backed and refers to as “quickstart,” would allow services to start out recent programs or speed up existing efforts without Congress formally approving them. It’s meant to deal with the lengthy periods of time lost while services wait for lawmakers to pass their budgets — times during which the military can’t start on recent programs.
The ultimate version of the NDAA, which House and Senate lawmakers hashed out in conference last week, would cap at $100 million the spending allowed under this proposal. That may be a combined total for the entire military services and is available in lower than the $300 million included in the unique proposal Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall backed earlier this 12 months.
Before a service can use a few of these funds to start out a program, it would must spell out to the defense secretary what the urgent or emergency national security need is, the associated fee, and why this system can’t wait until the budget is finished.
But while the slimmed-down quickstart provision is reduced from what the Air Force sought, service officials have indicated it will be welcome — particularly because House lawmakers originally didn’t include any type of it of their NDAA.
Andrew Hunter, the service’s acquisition chief, told Defense News in September the Senate’s inclusion of the quickstart provision was “wonderful,” calling the $100 million it will authorize “a superb start.”
Nonetheless, Hunter noted the $100 million could be divided amongst multiple services. If the competition for the cash is “really intense,” he said, the Pentagon will probably want to revisit the proposal.
Hunter said on the time the quickstart proposal would let the service move forward with initial contract work and early-stage program activities, even when a budget has not yet passed. Kendall also told reporters in April the preliminary work the proposal would allow would come with early requirements studies, risk reduction and design activities.
Hunter said this sort of early funding could help the Air Force with Project Venom, which might upgrade six F-16 fighters with autonomous software so the service can experiment with self-flying jets. Quickstart funding would allow the Air Force to start out buying parts to switch the F-16s and pay for design and software work, he said.
Kendall said during a November discussion on the Center for a Recent American Security the quickstart provision wasn’t only designed for continuing resolutions — wherein a fiscal 12 months begins with out a passed budget, forcing a department to operate under the previous 12 months’s funding levels — but in addition the regular budget process.
Even the conventional budgeting process costs the Air Force a 12 months to 18 months in lost time on recent programs, Kendall said, and CRs worsen that.
“All that point is time we’re ceding to China,” Kendall said. “We want to maneuver quickly, and just gifting away time that we could use doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.