Upcoming POM prioritizes funding for E-4B, AEHF nuclear C3

The Air Force has prioritized some of its nuclear command, control and communications programs in its fiscal year 2019 and five-year budget projections, according to Air Force Global Strike Command's top strategic planner.

"I think we do pretty good as far as tiering it out and identifying it through that governance structure what needs to happen first, second and third," Brig. Gen. Tom Wilcox told Inside Defense Tuesday at the Air Force Association's fall conference in National Harbor, MD. "We were able to do that for quite a few of those top-tier programs in the next [program objective memorandum] cycle . . . the [future years defense program] that’s coming out."

Those programs include systems flown on aircraft including the E-4 National Airborne Operations Center, used to command and control nuclear operations in emergencies, as well as Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellites, Wilcox said.

Inside Defense reported earlier this year that the Air Force's FY-19 POM has an NC3 enterprise strategy developed through the core function support plan, which outlines sustainment and modernization program requirements five to 10 years in advance. Until recently, the Air Force did not plan that far into the future for NC3 systems.

"We now have an NC3 annex in our core function support plan for the nuclear [deterrence] operations," NC3 Center Executive Director Russ Mathers told Inside Defense this summer. "Right now, we are building the FY-20 core function support plan, so that carves out money for in the future, when we build the FY-20 FYDP, we've got something to start with."