Appropriations bill boosts Air Force funding for low-cost aircraft, requires spending plan

In their fiscal year 2020 appropriations bill, congressional conference members have agreed to give the Air Force an additional $100 million to develop more low-cost attritable aircraft technology, on track with what the Senate recommended and twice what the House proposed.

The legislation, which lawmakers released Dec. 16, would require the Air Force secretary to submit a spending plan to defense committees no later than 90 days after it is enacted into law.

LCAAT is an ongoing effort at the Air Force Research Laboratory that experiments with unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomy and artificial intelligence. It has been using Kratos' XQ-58A Valkyrie as a demonstrator aircraft.

In a May report accompanying their draft version of the defense spending bill, House appropriators said LCAAT "has the potential for game-changing capability and capacity across both permissive and contested environments while avoiding the high cost, long development timelines, and inflexible production lines of traditional aircraft programs."

The House has already passed the defense appropriations bill. The Senate must still pass it and President Trump must sign it into law before Friday at midnight to prevent a federal government shut down.

Meanwhile, the Senate passed the FY-20 defense authorization bill Tuesday and it now awaits Trump's signature.