Top 25 Cuts To NDAA: $5B In Fuel, People, Readiness, & Weapons Detailed

Breaking Defense analysis of House & Senate data WASHINGTON: The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have found the $5 billion in cuts required under the budget deal. As HASC chairman Mac Thornberry promised, some of them are painful. The committees released the detailed list Tuesday after close of business, formatted into categories only a legislative aide could love, such as “Increases to NDAA Reductions.” (In plain English, that one means the original National Defense Authorization Act cut something from the president’s budget request, but the revised NDAA cuts even more). In a quest for clarity, I threw the whole thing into Excel and, after much reformatting and recalculating, came up with the 25 biggest reductions from the original NDAA. The top 25 cuts together add up to 87 percent of the total $5 billion reduction. In a beautiful mathematical coincidence, these 25 also just happen to be all the cuts that are over $25 million. They’re a mix of administrative shuffles and what Thornberry called “real programs, real capability that has to be cut.” Just over $1 billion (22% of the total $5 billion cut) in “fuel rate adjustments.” This simply reflects the lower price of gas, a big part of the budget when you’re flying jet airplanes, sailing warships, and driving tanks. This adjustment doesn’t hurt anybody, except maybe OPEC and Vladimir Putin, who’s been hurt more by falling oil prices than anything the US, NATO, and Ukraine have done. $453 million (9% of the total) for the “FY16 Share of Planned DOD Headquarters Streamlining/Attrition.” The Pentagon is already cutting headquarters by 25 percent over several years, but it looks like HASC and SASC want them to do it faster. Cutting “staff pukes” and “paper pushers” is always popular, but doing it in a hurry can create all sorts of unintended logjams as reports, approvals, and even vital intelligence pile up on empty desks. $262 million (5%) for “Overestimation Of Army Civilian Full Time Equivalent Targets.” The Army announced earlier today that “Since 2011, the Army has actively taken measures to align our civilian workforce with our reducing Army end-strength. As a result, there are fewer [civilians] on board today than programmed [i.e. budgeted for].” If there are fewer people on the payroll, you don’t need as much money. $250 million less for “Army Readiness increase.” Army leaders from Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on down have begged for more training and maintenance funds. The original NDAA did give them more, but the revised NDAA doesn’t give them quite as much, to the tune of a quarter-billion dollars. $250 million less for the “Counterterrorism Partnership Fund.” This provides aid to countries fighting terrorism in the increasingly unstable Middle East and North Africa. Of course, some of those countries, notably Yemen, are in no condition to receive US money at the moment. $230 million less for the Long Range Strike Bomber “to align with contract award delay.” This is one of those low-pain adjustments: LRSB didn’t get out the gate as fast as planned, so it’s not going to get to the expensive parts of the program as quickly, so it doesn’t need quite as much money next year. Don’t worry, the bomber program will spend plenty of billions later. $192.6 million less for an “Air National Guard Readiness increase.” As with the Army hit above (No. 4), this means less money for training and maintenance. $170 million less for the “National Guard & Reserve Equipment Account,” although the summary emphasizes this account is still getting $250 million more than the president requested. The Guard and Reserve are hometown troops politically popular with Congress, but this item and No. 7 shows even they aren’t immune from trimming. $150.2 million for an “unexecutable increase in Air Force End Strength.” The Air Force had planned to add more personnel, but that’s not happening. $150 million less for the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyer program. Since a single destroyer costs about $2 billion, this probably just means delaying some equipment rather than a whole ship. $125 million less for the “Syria Train & Equip program” to support moderate rebels, which has been a fiasco. $110 million less for the “Afghan Security Forces Fund,” identified as “fuel savings.” In other words, the Afghans are spending less on gas, just as we are, so we don’t need to subsidize them quite as heavily. $102.6 million for a “Classified Program Adjustment.” Move along. Nothing to see here. $100 million less for the “Technology Offset Initiative,” noted as a “New Program.” This looks like a hit to the Pentagon’s top long-term priority, the so-called “Third Offset Strategy” to keep America’s technological edge as China and Russia catch up in stealth aircraft, smart weapons, and cyberspace. $100 million less for “PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement.” This is the latest version of the Patriot missile, which the Army wants to upgrade for longer range. $100 million less for “Coalition Support Funds,” the mechanism the military uses to reimburse foreign allies — most notoriously Pakistan — for logistical and other help to US operations. $90.8 million less for “Defense Information System Network (DISN) activities,” due to “unjustified program growth.” In other words, the Pentagon asked for more money (growth), Congress decided they didn’t need it (unjustified). $80 million less for MQ-9 Reaper drones. Specifically, the original NDAA increased the number of Reapers being purchased, but the revised NDAA has to trim that back a bit. $77 million less for the “Airlift Readiness Account (from OMAF Mobility Operations).” Airlift is the big cargo planes the Air Force uses to haul everything from troops to tanks to humanitarian supplies. Readiness is mostly fuel, maintenance, and training. But it beats me (and Google) what an “OMAF” is. [Update: Helpful readers have pointed out this acronym simply means “Operations & Maintenance, Air Force.] $66.3 million less for “unexecutable Navy Civilian Full Time Equivalent Growth for management functions.” Again, this looks like civilians the military had planned to hire but didn’t. $50 million less for a “reduce[d] THAAD purchase.” THAAD is the Army’s higher-altitude, longer-ranged missile defense system, Patriot’s bigger brother. $41 million less for Joint Enabling Capabilities Command, a subunit of Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) devoted to deploying command-and-control systems quickly around the world. It’s justified as an otherwise undefined “efficiency,” which usually signals someone is getting a little desperate in their quest for cuts and is ordering someone else to wave a magic wand to make spending disappear. $30 million less for purchases of the Standard SM-3 Block 1B missile. Like Patriot and THAAD, this is another missile defense system, but a Navy one launched by Aegis ships (like those DDG-51s above at No. 10). $28.9 million less for “ship outfitting.” That’s more stuff that’s not going on Navy ships. $27.5 million less for the Navy’s “basic research program” — less than the original NDAA, that is: The program’s still getting an increase over the President’s budget. As the military wrestles with shrinking budgets and rising threats, it’s fighting hard to preserve investments for the long term. Our complete spreadsheet of all 98 listed cuts is below: Rank % of Total Cuts Amount in $1,000s Item Type Legislative Process 1 22% $1,082,000 Fuel rate adjustments Evolving Circumstances Increases to NDAA Reductions 2 9% $453,000 FY16 Share of Planned DOD Headquarters Streamlining/Attrition Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 3 5% $262,500 Overestimation Of Army Civilian Full Time Equivalent Targets Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 4 5% $250,000 Army Readiness increase Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 5 5% $250,000 Counterterrorism Partnership Fund Adjustments to OCO Increases to NDAA Reductions 6 5% $230,000 Long Range Strike Bomber change to align with contract award delay Evolving Circumstances Increases to NDAA Reductions 7 4% $192,600 Air National Guard Readiness increase Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 8 3% $170,000 National Guard & Reserve Equipment Account Adjustments to OCO Adjustments to NDAA Adds 9 3% $150,200 Unexecutable increase in Air Force End Strength Evolving Circumstances Adjustments to NDAA Adds 10 3% $150,000 DDG-51 destroyer Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 11 3% $125,000 Syria Train & Equip program change Adjustments to OCO Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 12 2% $110,000 Afghan Security Forces Fund – fuel savings Adjustments to OCO Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 13 2% $102,600 Classified Program Adjustment Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 14 2% $100,000 Technology Offset Initiative (New Program) Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 15 2% $100,000 Patriot PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 16 2% $100,000 Coalition Support Funds Adjustments to OCO Increases to NDAA Reductions 17 2% $90,800 Unjustified program growth for Defense Information System Network (DISN) activities Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 18 2% $80,000 MQ-9 Reaper drone Quantity increase Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 19 2% $77,000 Airlift Readiness Account (from OMAF Mobility Operations) Evolving Circumstances Reductions not carried in the NDAA 20 1% $66,281 Unexecutable Navy Civilian Full Time Equivalent Growth for management functions Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 21 1% $50,000 Reduce THAAD purchase Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 22 1% $41,000 Joint Enabling Capabilities Command – efficiency Programmatic Changes Reductions carried in House or Senate versions of the NDAA1008 PM 23 1% $30,000 Reduce SM3 1B (missile defense) purchase Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 24 1% $28,907 Ship Outfitting Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 25 1% $27,500 Basic research program increase – Navy Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 26 1% $25,000 Counterfire Radars Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 27 0% $22,500 Basic research program increase – Air Force Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 28 0% $20,500 Long Range Standoff Weapon contract delay Evolving Circumstances Reductions not carried in the NDAA 29 0% $20,000 Basic research program increase – Army Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 30 0% $20,000 Common Avionics Changes Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 31 0% $20,000 Excess Air Force carryover – Spares and Repair Parts Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 32 0% $19,000 Restructure AF Integrated Personnel and Pay System Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 33 0% $18,544 HARM Improvement Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 34 0% $17,000 Logistics Operations Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 35 0% $16,540 CARB (Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria) Programmatic Changes Reductions carried in House or Senate versions of the NDAA1008 PM 36 0% $16,100 Air Force unjustified contract increase Adjustments to OCO Increases to NDAA Reductions 37 0% $16,000 Logistics Support Activities Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 38 0% $15,000 C-5 Airlift Squadrons (IF) Communications Equipment/Radar Mods Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 39 0% $15,000 Mentor Protégé Program Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 40 0% $15,000 Common Ground Equipment Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 41 0% $14,000 Unexecutable USAF Full Time Equivalent Increase in Combat Enhancement Forces Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 42 0% $13,000 Joint Capability Technology Demonstration Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 43 0% $12,700 Delayed deployment of Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 44 0% $12,500 DCMA Information Technology Development Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 45 0% $12,358 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) contract delay Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 46 0% $12,300 Surface Combatant Combat System Engineering Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 47 0% $12,176 Logistics Information Technology Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 48 0% $12,000 Automated Data Processing Equip Programmatic Changes Reductions carried in House or Senate versions of the NDAA1008 PM 49 0% $11,000 SHARKSEER Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 50 0% $10,536 JIEDDO Attack The Network Adjustments to OCO Increases to NDAA Reductions 51 0% $10,000 STARBASE Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 52 0% $10,000 Family Of Beyond Line-Of-Sight Terminals Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 53 0% $10,000 Distributed Common Ground System-Army Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 54 0% $10,000 F–18 Modifications Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 55 0% $10,000 Joint Air-Surface Standoff Missile unit cost efficiencies Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 56 0% $10,000 Reduce AF Acquisition Training – duplication of effort Programmatic Changes Reductions carried in House or Senate versions of the NDAA1008 PM 57 0% $10,000 Trident II MODS program growth Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 58 0% $10,000 Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Modifications Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 59 0% $10,000 Maneuver Control System Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 60 0% $10,000 Excess Navy carryover – Spares and Repair Parts Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 61 0% $10,000 F-15 Modifications Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 62 0% $9,500 HC-130J unit cost growth Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 63 0% $9,000 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program increase Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 64 0% $8,500 Increase in Public Affairs at Local Installations Programmatic Changes Reductions carried in House or Senate versions of the NDAA1008 PM 65 0% $8,100 USMC Ground Combat/Supporting Arms project delay Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 66 0% $8,088 Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) contract delays Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 67 0% $8,000 Advanced Hawkeye Development Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 68 0% $8,000 Next Gen Jammer Development contract delay Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 69 0% $7,000 Common Computer Resources Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 70 0% $6,700 MC-130J program efficiencies Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 71 0% $6,500 Joint Electronic Advanced Technology Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 72 0% $6,000 Advanced EHF program growth Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 73 0% $5,700 Fleet satellite comm follow-on: excess storage costs Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 74 0% $5,360 DLA Uniform Research new start Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 75 0% $5,000 Quick Reaction Special Projects Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 76 0% $5,000 Weather System Follow On Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 77 0% $5,000 Transportable Tactical Command Communications Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 78 0% $5,000 Navy Fleet Band National Tours Programmatic Changes Reductions carried in House or Senate versions of the NDAA1008 PM 79 0% $5,000 H-1 Upgrades Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 80 0% $5,000 Excess carryover – Spacelift Range System Space Evolving Circumstances Reductions not carried in the NDAA 81 0% $4,900 Unexecutable USAF Full Time Equivalent Increase in Security Programs Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 82 0% $4,000 E-4 Modification program delay Evolving Circumstances Reductions not carried in the NDAA 83 0% $3,578 Increase in Space and Missile Center (SMC) Civilian Workforce Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 84 0% $3,200 Unexecutable USAF Full Time Equivalent Increase in Tactical Intel and Other Special Activities Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 85 0% $3,000 Advanced Civil Schooling -Civilian Graduate School Programmatic Changes Reductions carried in House or Senate versions of the NDAA1008 PM 86 0% $2,700 National Guard State Partnership Program Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 87 0% $2,126 Joint Warfighting Program Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 88 0% $2,100 Unexecutable USAF Full Time Equivalent Increase in Primary Combat Forces Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 89 0% $2,000 Global Positioning (Space) program growth Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 90 0% $2,000 Air Force Satellite Control Network system engineering Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 91 0% $1,700 AMRAAM unit cost variance Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 92 0% $1,500 Global Combat Support System‐AF Family of Systems Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 93 0% $1,150 Civil Air Patrol Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 94 0% $930 Air Force Civilian Graduate Education Program Programmatic Changes Reductions not previously carried in the NDAA 95 0% $894 Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio (MNVR) Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 96 0% $510 Eliminate National Guard Heritage Paintings initiative Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions 97 0% $500 Naval Sea Cadet Corps Programmatic Changes Adjustments to NDAA Adds 98 0% $51 C-130 Modifications Programmatic Changes Increases to NDAA Reductions

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Top 25 Cuts To NDAA: $5B In Fuel, People, Readiness, & Weapons Detailed

Posted on November 4, 2015

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