Combat Aircraft Plans in the Department of the Navy: Key Issues
Abstract
The Navy plans to increase the number of its deployable aircraft carriers from 13 today (up from 12 in 1981) to 15 by the early 1990s. The added carriers, the Navy argues, will provide the United States with additional ability to maintain a worldwide naval presence in peacetime and additional naval capability in the event of war. To provide aircraft for these carriers, the Navy added a thirteenth air wing last year and plans a fourteenth wing in 1987; the fifteenth wing will come from reserve forces. (An air wing consists of 80 to 90 planes that fly from an aircraft carrier, plus associated support aircraft.) These new wings, plus existing ones, will be modernized according to a new plan recently adopted by the Navy that modifies the composition of most air wings. Expansion and modernization will add substantially to costs. The Congress appropriated $11.5 billion for the Navy aircraft procurement account in 1983. Proposed funds for 1986 amount to $12.1 billion and total $71 billion over the next five years. (All costs in this study are expressed in 1986 constant dollars of budget authority.) The average real growth of the program from 1985 to 1990 is approximately 6 percent.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA491799
Entities
Organizations
- Congressional Budget Office