Air Force facing budgetary train wreck.

* Absent a major increase in topline funding, the Air Force acquisition budget will experience a crunch in the 2020s, analysts said.

The service is projected to spend more than $67 billion in fiscal years 2016 through 2020 on its top three priorities--the F-35 joint strike fighter, KC-46 tanker and long-range strike bomber--as well as C-130 cargo aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Budget plans for this period also include initial funding for: joint surveillance target attack radar system recapitalization; a new combat rescue helicopter; a presidential aircraft replacement; and a new advanced T-X trainer aircraft.

These programs, if carried to fruition, are all likely to be in the procurement stage in the 2020s. The Air Force is therefore facing a modernization "bow wave" unless plans are modified, budget experts said.

"Procurement spending on established programs will continue to be substantial," Jeremiah Gertler, a military aviation specialist with the Congressional Research Service, said in a December report, "The Air Force Aviation Investment Challenge."

"How will the future Air Force procurement budget accommodate the new programs as well?"

Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said procuring just "the big three"--F-35, KC-46 and long-range strike bomber--would be a major modernization burden...