Launched in 2015 to succeed the F-22 Raptor, the US Air Force's NGAD program has already experienced two radical turnarounds. If, initially, the program aimed to design a high-performance, high-technology fighter, at the center of a combat techno-system, it evolved, under the direction of Will Roper in 2019, towards a program of programs, integrating several combat aircraft and drones that are less expensive, more specialized and have a shorter lifespan.
Upon the arrival of Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall following Joe Biden's election victory, NGAD returned to its original ambition, promising to design a worthy successor to the F-22. In doing so, the unit price of the fighter, and its system of systems, also increased, with the device promising to cost “several hundred million dollars,” according to Mr. Kendall.
In recent weeks, the NGAD program has once again made headlines in the specialized press, when, successively, the USAF Chief of Staff, General Allvin, and Frank Kendall, announced that it -this could be threatened by budgetary decisions. Since then, the announcements have followed one another. Far from clarifying the picture, it has become increasingly opaque, even if the authorities promise future decisions on this subject.
In this section:
The US Air Force faces difficult budgetary decisions ahead
In recent years, and even decades, the American Armed Forces have made a specialty of canceling technologically too ambitious programs, after having spent several billions or tens of billions of dollars. This is not the case, however, with regard to the threats hovering over the high-performance fighter of the NGAD program.
Indeed, this decision, pending, is above all guided by budgetary imperatives, the US Air Force simply no longer having the means to jointly carry out all the modernization programs undertaken in recent years, whereas, in at the same time, the budget of the US armies seems to have reached a glass ceiling which will be difficult to cross in the years to come, due to the American sovereign debt.
However, in recent months, several USAF strategic programs have been re-evaluated, particularly in the budgetary area, with, as a result, a significant increase in financing needs in the 10 to 20 years to come.
This is particularly the case of LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM ballistic missile program, which must replace, from 2029, the approximately 400 Minutemann III ICBMs currently deployed by the US Air Force, and constitute one of the key components of the American strategic nuclear triad.
The program, then estimated at almost $78 billion, was entrusted to Northrop Grumman in 2020. Since then, alerts have multiplied, with the observation that the established budgetary trajectory would bring the program to a final delivery cost, beyond 160 billion, leading to the launch of a Nunn-McCurdy procedure by Congress.
Recognizing the major budgetary drift and the threats it represented on this strategic program, the Undersecretary for Acquisition of the US Air Force, William LaPlante, announced his profound reorganization, having made it possible to reduce the forecast budget to “only” $140,9 billion, an increase of 81% compared to the budget planned for 2020. The US Air Force has no other choice but to finance it from its own budget, in the years to come. come.
There are 75% of this article left to read, Subscribe to access it!
The Classic subscriptions provide access to
articles in their full version, and without advertising,
from €1,99. Subscriptions Premium also allow access to archives (articles over two years old)
