Air Force munitions reprogramming requests reduced

By Rachel Cohen / October 26, 2018 at 1:31 PM

Cuts to two Air Force munitions efforts are tucked into Congress' response to an "omnibus" reprogramming request the Defense Department sent this summer.

In each case, the Pentagon comptroller pulled funds from the programs to balance out congressionally approved spending elsewhere. Inside Defense obtained the response this week.

One change removes $20.5 million of a $51.5 million request to shift money to modify 1,000 Joint Direct Attack Munition tailkits that would support an urgent operational need for JDAMs with navigation systems that are harder to jam.

Another edit brings a $41.1 million new-start request to buy 1,000 500-pound penetrating warheads down to $3.8 million. The Air Force said it would run tests in the second half of fiscal year 2018 to decide whether to buy the Israeli-made MPR-500 or General Dynamics' BLU-129/B, which was awarded an $8 million production contract in January 2017.

The Air Force urgently needs a "very low collateral damage" bomb, the reprogramming document states.

"These weapons use a composite case warhead, which adds explosive force nearby but lowers collateral damage to address current operational concerns," according to the request.

Lawmakers did approve funding shifts for the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, modular rifle components and medium-caliber ammunition rounds, and disallowed a small spending cut to the nuclear B61-12 tailkit assembly program.

199852