As promised, the fiscal 2017 defense budget request unveiled Tuesday will stretch out the proposed retirement of the A-10 Thunderbolt II — a mainstay of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base — by three years to 2022.
The budget also proposes major buys of weapons made by Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems, including the Tomahawk cruise missile.
The new budget plan also would keep the EC-130 Compass Call electronic jamming planes flying at D-M, and fund upgrades to aircraft used by the local air base’s combat-rescue squadrons.
A top Air Force commander had said in a budget preview that the Air Force would put off retiring the A-10 in light of demand for the close air support aircraft to battle Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria and to bolster NATO in the face of an aggressive Russia.
The Air Force has not yet released its new timetable for retiring the “Warthog.” Under a plan halted by Congress last year, the Air Force proposed mothballing 55 of D-M’s 83 A-10s in the current fiscal year.
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In its 2017 budget request, the Pentagon also has proposed fully funding D-M’s fleet of 14 EC-130 Compass Call planes — the only such fleet in the Air Force and one of its most continually deployed assets — after seeking to mothball half of the planes a year ago.
The Air Force also wants to fund upgrades to the HC-130J Combat King rescue plane as well as continue development of a new combat-rescue helicopter to replace the HH-60 Pave Hawk by 2021.
The Pentagon is also asking for $187 million in fiscal year 2017 to buy 100 of Raytheon’s Tomahawks for the Navy, and about $500 million on Raytheon’s Standard Missile ship-defense interceptors.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said recently that as part of its future spending plans over five years, the Pentagon plans to buy $2 billion worth of Tomahawks and spend $2.9 billion to buy Standard Missile-6 interceptors and adapt them to an anti-ship role.
