Aviation force gets smaller, but new aircraft spending on course.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

Both Navy and Marine Corps aviation forces will see a slight drop in the size of the fleet, but production of new aircraft will continue at a healthy pace, said Rear Adm. Thomas J. Kilcline Jr., director of the Navy Air Warfare Division.

The Navy and Marine Corps, which now own 2,786 aircraft, will see that number dip to 2,709 in 2006, and 2,641 in 2007.

The intent is to replace aging aircraft with fewer, but more technologically advanced systems. In fiscal year 2006, the Navy requested funds to buy 138 new airplanes. "We are doing pretty good," Kilcline said. He compared the current budget with the financially grim days of the mid-1990s, when the Navy forecast about 40 to 60 new airplanes per year. The current projections--which are likely to be revised--show new aircraft buys exceeding 200 per year by the end of the decade.

Despite delays in the MV-22 Osprey and the Joint Strike Fighter programs, the overall level of aircraft production will remain high. Kilcline told National Defense. Boosting the numbers will be a surge in the manufacturing of T-6 training aircraft. Beginning in 2007, the Navy will begin purchasing nearly 50 per year. "We need those," Kilcline said, to replace the outdated T-34s.

As the Pentagon's budget proposal gets digested on Capitol Hill, one of the issues causing heartburn among many lawmakers is the termination of the C-130J cargo aircraft program. Kilcline, who oversees both Navy and Marine Corps aviation programs, said the cancellation of the C-130J is bad news for the Marines, who had requested 51 new aircraft. Unless the Defense Department reverses course on this, the Corps would end up with 33 C-130Js, instead of 51. "Congress wants to make sure we get the Marine Corps their allotment," Kilcline said. If the Pentagon and Congress fail to reach an agreement to extend the C-130J contract with Lockheed Martin, the Marine Corps will have to upgrade older C-130s to fill that gap, he added.

Among the winners in this year's budget is the Super Hornet program, which remains on track to deliver 148 aircraft by 2011, and 90 EA-18Gs, to be produced by 2011. The Navy also will purchase 20 E-2C Hawkeye command-and-control aircraft.

Other aviation programs will get fewer aircraft than was previously budgeted. The Joint Strike Fighter is being trimmed from 127 to 111 aircraft (for the 2006-2011 period), the MV-22 Osprey from 180 to 145, the MH-60S...