> http://lenta.ru/news/2005/12/05/fcs/
Это устаревшие данные. В подготовленных Пентагоном предложениях к бюджету любые сокращения по F-35 и F/A-22 исключены. Т.е. сухопутный F-35 сокращать не планируется, заказ на Рэпторы остается на прежнем уровне, а план производства продлен на два года. Планируются сокращения личного состава ВВС (но не закупок вооружений), а также возможны ограничения на производство C-17. Вот статья на эту тему в сегодняшнем WSJ.
Pentagon Weighs
Personnel Cuts
To Pay for Weapons
Smaller Air Force, Reduction
In Army's Plans for Growth
Are Among Ideas Considered
By JONATHAN KARP and ANDY PASZTOR in Los Angeles and GREG JAFFE in Washington
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 5, 2005; Page A1
As the Defense Department scrambles to finalize its budget for the coming fiscal year, the Air Force is looking to secure much of its savings by cutting active and reserve forces, instead of slashing weapons purchases.
The Army, which is bearing more of the burden of the war in Iraq, doesn't envision similar personnel cuts, but is exploring a modest slowdown in its plans for troop growth as it grapples with a recruiting shortfall.
The Pentagon move to sacrifice manpower in order to protect high-tech weaponry is an about-face from signals in recent months that Pentagon leaders and defense-industry executives were girding for deep weapons-program cuts to offset huge bills from both the war in Iraq and the Gulf Coast hurricanes.
The Army and Marine Corps have provided the bulk of U.S. troops for the war and have taken the most casualties. Although the Air Force also has committed troops and aircraft to Iraq, it hasn't been stretched nearly as thin as the Army. Unlike the Army, the Air Force hasn't had any trouble meeting its annual recruiting targets, and is exceeding its retention goals. The Army's study of a possible slowdown in troop growth, on the other hand, is driven by the service's recruiting difficulties as much as a desire to save money.
The personnel moves may be controversial, but they reflect the military's need to replace aging equipment that has been pushed to the limit. Congress just a few months ago blessed a White House request to temporarily boost the Army by as much as 30,000 soldiers, and some powerful lawmakers are convinced the total number of U.S. ground troops should swell even further than that as the insurgency in Iraq rages. Moreover, many lawmakers remain skeptical about the military's ability to effectively manage some of the very aircraft, satellite and other hardware-development programs Pentagon brass most want to save from the budget ax.
Nonetheless the shift is good news for the nation's major defense contractors, which appear to have dodged major cutbacks in big-ticket weapons purchases. The Air Force often has been on the defensive under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose vision of transforming the military with weapons aimed at countering multiple threats, including terrorists, clashes with some of the service's big aircraft projects. Some of the savings realized through personnel cuts could be used to pay for programs to make the military more adept at fighting terrorists or defending the homeland from attack, defense officials say.
As budget season kicks into high gear and the war in Iraq continues, the Pentagon's calculus reflects its assessment of how to best deploy limited defense resources as well as the spiraling costs of keeping people in uniform. "It can take years for cuts in weapons programs to generate savings," said Loren Thomspon, who runs the Lexington Institute defense think tank in Arlington, Va., and who consults for defense companies. "Cutting people saves money immediately."
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, recently said that in his two years in the job the cost of maintaining 10,000 soldiers has risen to about $1.5 billion a year from $1.2 billion annually.
One option under consideration by the Army would modestly scale back the service's growth. The Army's current plan is to expand to 43 combat brigades from 33 by the end of 2007. The service, however, is considering either postponing or forgoing the addition of one of those 5,000-soldier brigades next year. It also could cut as many as three National Guard brigades from a planned force of 34 combat brigades, said an Army official involved in preparing the budget.
In a more significant change, the Air Force is considering a plan to eliminate more than 30,000 uniformed and civilian slots between fiscal 2007 and 2011, service officials said. An Air Force spokeswoman declined to comment on the proposed cuts, saying it would be premature.
The proposed cuts are tentative, and their size could change significantly in the final Bush administration budget. Calculations of projected savings also are still under way. But with a number of developments coming to a head this week, it is becoming evident that the Pentagon wants to stave off budget attacks on everything from new Army vehicles to next-generation fighter jets and advanced space-communications systems.
Within days, the White House is due to decide on a defense-spending ceiling for the fiscal year starting next October. That ceiling is expected to be in the range of $440 billion. It's a benchmark Pentagon officials have been anticipating as they face a Christmas deadline for finishing their internal budget deliberations. Defense decision makers this week also begin to sort through the services' requests for a supplemental spending bill for this year to fund operations in Iraq, and the Pentagon's weapons-procurement chief is slated to lead an important review of troubled multibillion-dollar space programs, a pressure point in Air Force finances.
The focus on cutting personnel partially lifts a cloud from a rare Pentagon dinner tonight between several defense-industry chief executives and Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who is spearheading budget and strategic-planning exercises. An October memo from Mr. England instructing the services to cut some $32 billion in projected spending through 2011 created anxiety among defense contractors and investors that some major weapons programs could be terminated.
To be sure, budget officials are likely to cut away at the margins of weapons procurement, which is expected to total some $78 billion in fiscal 2007.
Separate surveillance-plane programs led by Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. face possible cuts, and lobbying already is under way to reverse the Pentagon's intent to cap production of Boeing Co.'s C-17 transport plane. Various space programs are bound to be scaled back and stretched out, and some relatively small programs, such as an airborne laser project led by Boeing, face the greatest jeopardy of being scrapped outright.
But two of the costliest future weapons systems in Mr. England's sights, the Air Force's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter made by Lockheed and the Navy's DDX destroyer made by Northrop and General Dynamics Corp., have escaped the guillotine in this budget cycle. The Army's marquee modernization program, called Future Combat Systems and led by Boeing, also appears set to be spared from another major restructuring.
A system of missile-warning satellites being built by Lockheed, years late and at a cost of more than three times as much as its initial $3 billion budget, once again is likely to survive largely intact, according to Air Force and industry officials familiar with the details. The Air Force appears ready to tell Congress that it believes management shortcomings have been corrected, the technology is headed down the right path and there isn't any viable alternative to pushing ahead with development.
To stay within its expected budget, the Air Force is planning to cut at least 30,000, and perhaps as many as 40,000, uniformed personnel, civilians and contractor-support staff through fiscal 2011, military officials said. The exact composition of the cuts isn't known, though their thrust is clear: "This is one way to pay the bills without messing around with our weapons programs," said one official involved in the Air Force budget.
Indeed, even before the latest moves the Air Force was on track to eliminate as many as 1,100 officer slots this year through attrition and other means, according to a senior general and a veteran defense-industry official who has discussed the matter with Air Force brass.
The Air Force had been planning to cut personnel anyway, as it introduced Lockheed's F/A-22, a stealthy fighter that began development during the Cold War, and another new plane, the Joint Strike Fighter. Because these jets are more capable and durable than their predecessors, the service determined it would need fewer of them -- along with their phalanx of pilots and mechanics -- to field comparable firepower. By accelerating the cuts, the Air Force will shrink to better afford its next generation of fighter aircraft.
The Army's initial plan projected expanding to as many as 43 brigades by the end of fiscal 2007, 10 more than its current strength. Instead, it is now considering stopping at 42 brigades. Army leaders, among other things, also are considering trimming as many as three brigades from the National Guard's planned force of 34 brigades. The active-duty Army ended the 2005 fiscal year about 6,000 soldiers short of its goal of 80,000 new recruits. The National Guard was about 12,000 soldiers short of its goal of 63,000 recruits.
The Navy previously committed to shrinking its uniformed personnel as planners consider a smaller fleet of more-automated warships.
Manpower reductions affecting either the Air Force's uniformed or civilian acquisition corps are expected to face particular scrutiny, because the service has gone through years of scandal and morale-sapping controversy over allegations that Boeing received preferential treatment on some big-ticket aircraft and munitions programs. As a result, the Air Force's leadership will be hard-pressed to advocate further slimming down of contracting and oversight functions.
С уважением, Василий Кашин