The U.S. Air Force’s $3.5 billion budgetary wish list for fiscal 2025 includes more funds for spare parts to get grounded planes back within the air, and seeks resources to have the opportunity to deploy more personnel and fighter jets.
The unfunded priorities list the service submitted to Congress, dated March 21, asks for one more $1.5 billion to restock spare parts; $612 million to create nine latest deployable units called mission generation force elements; $1.1 billion for construction projects worldwide; and $266 million to fund exercises within the Pacific region.
The Air Force didn’t ask Congress for added funds to purchase more aircraft, because it sometimes has in previous years’ unfunded priorities lists. The service’s $188.1 billion budget request for FY25 trims six F-35A Joint Strike Fighters and 6 F-15EX Eagle II fighters from what it originally planned, and the wish list doesn’t aim to vary that.
Within the unfunded priorities list, the Air Force said its additional $1.5 billion request for spare parts — the most important component within the list — is essential since the tight budget environment prevented it from asking for all of the parts it needed.
The spare parts request asks for:
- $167 million for B-52H Stratofortress bombers.
- $564 million for F-16 Fighting Falcon jets.
- Nearly $61 million for F-15E Strike Eagle jets.
- Nearly $62 million for the HC-130J Combat King personnel recovery aircraft.
- $195 million for RC-135 intelligence aircraft.
- $7 million for C-130J Super Hercules cargo planes.
- Almost $450 million for the KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling plane.
The service also said its $612 million request to create latest mission generation force elements would allow it to deploy as many as 208 additional combat-coded fighters.
Mission generation force elements are a part of the service’s latest Air Force Generation deployment concept, which permit it to send fighter aircraft overseas. Those elements include each the equipment, jets and airmen needed to fly and maintain the aircraft. In addition they include munitions operations, weather-tracking capabilities, and intelligence and cyber capabilities.
This request would cover a one-time purchase of spare parts, aviation support equipment and munitions support equipment. But the weather can be created using personnel and fighters already within the service, and the funds wouldn’t pay for more jets or airmen.
The Air Force said its $1.1 billion request for added construction funds would allow it to whittle down a $46.8 billion backlog on infrastructure and facilities that it needs to organize for a possible conflict against China.
That features $158 million for planning and design work on the Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft that can replace the aging E-4B Nightwatch fleet. The E-4B, nicknamed the “doomsday plane,” would allow the president to direct forces in case of a nuclear war or other devastating emergency that destroys command-and-control centers on the bottom.
It also asks for one more $215 million in construction funds for basic military training classrooms and a dining facility at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, plus $148 million for a multidomain operations complex at Beale Air Force Base in California.
The Air Force also asked for one more $28 million to construct infrastructure needed for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the T-7A Red Hawk trainer at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
And the service wants additional funds to permit Pacific Air Forces to conduct a theaterwide exercise to practice the Agile Combat Employment concept. That approach goals to opened up deployed airmen across more bases to make it harder for an adversary, equivalent to China, to destroyer large portions of the force.
After the primary theaterwide Agile Combat Employment exercise in 2025, the Air Force wants to maintain holding those drills every other yr, and plans to make use of $5 million to plan and prepare for them.
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.