Retirement of B-52, U-2 and F-117a Halted
Posted on: May. 20th, 2006 ||
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The House has voted to halt retirement of dozens of aircraft, which would have saved $2.6 billion by 2011. The Air Force planned to retire the older aircraft and use the money to upgrade other planes and buy new ones.
But retiring the B-52 bomber, U-2 spy plane and F-117 stealth fighter could leave the service with major holes in its fleet.
Although the unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk has taken over many duties from the manned U-2 spy plane, any of the 34 U-2's will not be retired until the DoD can certify to Congress that the manned planes are no longer needed for intelligence-gathering and surveillance missions.
Retiring the U-2 could save $1 billion over the next four years.
The Air Force recently detailed plans to accelerate retirement of the F-117 stealth fighter, which would have saved $1 billion by 2011. The House rejected that plan, and allows the Air Force to retire only 10 Nighthawks in fiscal 2007. Furthermore, the House want all retired aircraft to be preserved for possible future operations.
The B-52 bomber has also been spared, none of the 94 B-52 H-model planes can retire until a replacement is available. The Pentagon earlier this year revealed its intent to reduce the fleet from 94 to 56 -- a move that would have saved $680 million through 2011, a congressional aide said.
House lawmakers also limited the retirement of KC-135E aerial refueling tankers to 29; the Pentagon wanted to sideline 78 of them, but did not provide Congress with details of those savings.
The Air Force has not yet submitted documents to the House Armed Services Committee detailing the ultimate cost of the delayed retirements, the aide said. An Air Force spokeswoman would not comment on the legislation.
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