STAFF:  Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.  I'm Major Pat Gargan with the secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs.  In just a moment, the Honorable Kristyn E. Jones, assistant secretary of the Air Force of far — for financial management and Comptroller, performing the duties of Under Secretary of the Air Force and Major General Mike Greiner, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for budget and comptroller will be presenting the Department of the Air Force Fiscal Year 2024 Presidents Budget overview briefing.  If you were unable to pick up a packet of materials earlier today, please let me know after the briefing, and I'll make sure you get one.  Following the briefing, Honorable Jones and Major General Greiner will be taking your questions.  For the interest of time, I ask that you only ask one question with one follow-up to allow for other questions.

Without further ado, Honorable Kristyn Jones.

PTDO UNDER SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE KRISTYN E. JONES:  Good afternoon.  I'm Kristyn Jones, here today performing the duties of Under Secretary of the Air Force.  I also serve as the assistant secretary for financial management and comptroller.  I'm joined by Major General Mike Greiner, the deputy assistant secretary for budget.  Thank you for joining us.

Next slide, please.

During this presentation of the Department of the Air Force's Fiscal Year 2024 President's Budget Request, I will provide the strategic backdrop for our budgetary decisions, outline the overview of the department's request and present the air and space capabilities needed to support the National Defense Strategy.  General Greiner will highlight the appropriation-level details.

Next slide, please.

The National Defense Strategy places a primary focus on the need to sustain and strengthen U.S. deterrence against the People's Republic of China and lays out our top-level defense priorities: defending the homeland, deterring strategic attacks, deterring aggression and building a resilient Joint Force.  The nation's Air and Space Forces have key roles to play in each NDS priority, as is reflected in our F.Y. '24 budget request.

Defending the nation requires constant vigilance in all domains.  As examples, our budget request includes continued investment in 72 fighters in F.Y. '24, as well as the accelerated acquisition of new space-based missile warning architectures to improve our sensing capabilities and enable defenses against the full range of ballistic missile threats.

National defense also requires recapitalizing the ICBM and bomber legs of the nuclear triad.  The Sentinel program, our ICBM replacement, is continuing in development, and the recently-unveiled B-21 Raider is scheduled to achieve its first flight this calendar year.  These programs and others that strengthen integrated deterrence are fully-funded in the F.Y. '24 budget request.  Our people and our missions succeed through teamwork, which extends to the entirety of the Joint Force, combatant commands and our allies and partners.  Our F.Y. '24 budget request allows us to research, test, acquire and build the enduring advantage of tomorrow with joint, allied and partner integration at the forefront of our efforts.  Our work also strengthens a robust infrastructure comprised of trustworthy industry partners to help us innovate and deliver the modernized capabilities we need. 

All of our mission capabilities rest on one single foundation: our people.  The hard work and dedication of 700,000 military and civilian airmen and Guardians are the power of our department.  In F.Y. '24, we continue supporting them by ensuring they can serve to their fullest potential.  The Department of the Air Force encourages a culture of respect and promotes initiatives that foster diversity and inclusion to build high-performing, ready teams.  We will increase access to quality healthcare and continue to advance our talent management processes.  These efforts will simultaneously strengthen readiness, while improving recruiting and retention.

Next slide, please.

Here and in the appropriation-level slides, you'll see two sets of numbers: the F.Y. '23 enacted on the left and the F.Y. '24 president's budget request on the right.  The stacked columns highlight the Department of the Air Force's budget request, consisting of the Air Force, Space Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard.

Looking at the bar chart for F.Y. '24, excluding the $44.2 billion of non-blue funding, the Department of the Air Force is requesting $215.1 billion.  This is a $9.3 billion, or 4.5 percent increase over the F.Y. '23 enacted position.  The F.Y. '23 enacted position also includes $1.4 billion in blue funding from the Ukraine supplemental.

On the right, pie charts break out the Air Force and Space Force baselines by appropriation.  The Air Force budget of $185.1 billion is a $5.4 billion increase over the F.Y. '23 enacted position.  The Space Force budget of $30 billion is a $3.9 billion increase.

Next slide, please.

Last year, the Department of the Air Force refocused modernization efforts and introduced the seven operational imperatives that must be accomplished to implement the National Defense Strategy.  We've made significant progress in identifying data, wargame and threat-informed capabilities to define new programs for developing and fielding these capabilities.  When the threat is racing to outpace us, standing still is falling behind.  Our F.Y. '24 budget request includes 20 new requirements and $4.8 billion in new funding to further the essential transformation of the department to the next generation of capability.

Let me now draw your attention to the monitors.  In the coming slides, you will see a series of graphics that showcase the seven operational imperatives.  As the picture builds, you'll see the true value is in their integration and interconnectedness.

Space is a military domain of critical importance to our global allied forces and our ability to project power.  The first operational imperative is to define and field the space architecture we need.  Our F.Y. '24 budget request includes funding for both defensive and offensive space capabilities, continuing the work on a resilient missile-warning constellation initiated last year.  It also builds out a space-communications capability based on diversity and dispersion of satellites.  Winning takes space-enabled, multi-domain operations and a Joint Force trained on current operational concepts.  In this contested environment we must shift to a resilient and effective space order of battle and ensure we have the tools, talent and experience to enable space superiority.

The Air and Space Forces play crucial roles in Joint All-Domain Command and Control or JADC2.  We must ensure the totality of DAF Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management, C2BM programs, provide an integrated capability with the resilience and performance to provide timely information across the joint force, as well as the systems to communicate, manage and employ that information at speed and scale.

The Advanced Battle Management System, ABMS, is one part of this overall effort and we've established a new program executive office to field Airborne relay, communications and networking, digital infrastructure and software tools to enable the warfighter to make effective decisions in a high-speed, complex fight against our pacing challenge.

We must have the ability to track and engage advancing enemy forces in the air, on land and at sea.  We are addressing this with a combination of space and air-based systems.  The Space Force is working with the intelligence community to ensure the Joint Force has the support it needs, including space-based sensing to support joint tactical warfighting.

Air Force systems, like the E7, will provide additional sensing capabilities that will integrate with space capabilities for enhanced target detection and tracking.

For more than 75 years the Air Force has dominated opponents in the air.  The PRC is challenging that dominance.  We cannot afford complacency.  We will employ a family of systems to sustain our air superiority.  The centerpiece of this effort is the Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, platform.  This budget also initiates a program to field uncrewed, collaborative combat aircraft to compliment the NGAD, the F-35 and other crewed platforms.

Investments by the PRC and Russia in long-range precision strikes put our forward airbases at risk.  The Air Force's Agile Combat Employment or ACE concept, partially addresses this threat by improving survivability.  In the F.Y. '24 budget request, the DAF prioritized actions that could quickly improve the overall resiliency of our forward-deployed air assets, building hardened shelters and prepositioning equipment and supplies needed to implement ACE.

The Air Force's global strike capabilities provide a powerful, conventional and strategic deterrent.  The B-21 Raider continues to make progress toward production and fielding.  When employed as part of a family of systems, the Raider will operate with new weapons, sensors and communications to deliver effective and lethal contributions to the joint fight.

Finally, we must ensure that our systems and facilities function as needed when mobilizing and transitioning to wartime operations.  We are focused on the cybersecurity of our critical information systems and infrastructure, modernizing and hardening our networks and providing our cyber operators with new tools and capabilities.

Now I'll turn it over to General Greiner to cover the Department of the Air Force Budget Request Appropriation Level Details.  Next slide, please.

MAJOR GENERAL MIKE A. GREINER:  Thank you, Madam Secretary.  Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

On each appropriation slide, you will see a similar format.  The funding table shows the overall department budget and the funding details for both the Air Force and Space Force.  You also see key budgetary changes.  The pie chart in the top right corner highlights the respective appropriations portion of the budget by percentage.  The department's RDT&E request is $55.4 billion, a $4.9 billion increase over the F.Y. '23 enacted position.  This growth showcases the department's commitment to making the investments needed to implement the national defense strategy.

The Air Force's RDT&E request is $36.2 billion, a $2.3 billion request.  This budget provides $3.7 billion for development of sentinel, which includes flight systems, weapon systems, command and control, and launch systems, including missile launch silos, launch control centers, and other ground infrastructure.  It also provides $3 billion to support continued engineering and manufacturing development activities for the B-21 family of systems as well as $911 million for the long range standoff weapon that will anchor the air leg of the nuclear triad.

This budget request adds $791 million for the Survivable Airborne Operations Center program ensuring continued C2 operations for our nation's leadership. 

The Air Force continues to invest in air superiority with the Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems.  This budget request includes $1.9 billion for this program, a $276 million increase to continue development efforts for advanced sensors, resilient communications and air vehicle technologies.  NGAD will provide survivable lethality and persistence while seamlessly integrating future capabilities such as un-crewed collaborative combat aircraft, for which $470 million of this budget request is added to accelerate development and testing. 

The budget request adds $254 million for E-7 prototyping to provide a significant capability improvement over the current E-3 AWACS systems, including advanced airborne moving target indicator capabilities while delivering increased aircraft availability and lowering sustainment cost.

This budget adds $263 million to the air bound management systems portfolio, supporting digital infrastructure, airborne edge note integration and cloud-based C2.

Finally, this budget begins initial investment for the next generation air refueling system.  NGAS is critical to ensure the development of technologies required to carry out the air refueling mission in an increasingly challenging threat environment.

On the next slide we'll look at the Space Force RDT&E.  Next slide, please.

The RDT&E request for the Space Force is $19.2 billion, which represents a $2.6 billion increase over the F.Y. '23 position.  This budget pivots towards resilient architectures and embodies an integrated deterrence approach establishing the Space Force's ability to operate in a highly contested environment.  This budget adds $1.1 billion for missile warning and missile tracking capabilities, providing a proliferated architecture across the low and middle-earth orbits to detect advanced missile launch signatures.  The budget also adds $1.1 billion to continued accelerated development of this Space Development Agency's Tranche 1 constellation for delivery of the data transport layer while also funding development of the Tranche 2 transport layer space vehicles.

This budget supports secure, survivable, strategic communications with a $114 million add to the evolved strategic SATCOM program, which will replace the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites.

Finally, this budget brings to reality the transfer of the Joint Tactical Ground Stations from the Army to the Space Force.  This transfer provides theater missile warning that enables real-time alerting and queuing information on ballistic missile launches, ultimately consolidating global missile warning under a single military service.

Next let's review the highlights for procurement.  Next slide, please. 

The department continues to heavily invest in advanced capabilities supporting integrated deterrents, ensuring that our systems provide an advantage over any potential adversary's collective means.  The F.Y. '24 procurement request is $35.4 billion, a $1.2 billion increase over F.Y. '23 levels.

For the Air Force's budget adds nearly $1 billion to grow the F-35 fighter fleet by 48 aircraft.  It adds $518 million to procure 15 KC-46s for continued tanker recapitalization and provides $317 million for 24 F-15EXs.

This budget continues to make gains in the Air Force's global strike capability, adding $673 million for our newest bomber, the B-21 Raider.  It funds critical munitions, adding $1 billion to initiate a multiyear procurement strategy to achieve synergies and production for 550 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, 457 AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, and 27 Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles.

This budget also adds $539 million to procure Sentinel program long lead time parts in advanced of one procurement efforts.

Our ability to use space effectively requires assured access, being first to field the needed capabilities and the ability to reconstitute them if necessary.  This budget provides $2.1 billion for national security space launch, ensuring their program has sufficient capacity to place essential capabilities on orbit.  It also provides $529 million to procure five space development agencies launches and $147 million to being low grade initial production for 23 Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Site Terminals of FAB-T.

Next we'll take a look at the major procurement quantities.  Next slide.

Here we just highlight the procurement quantities.  Most of these I've already discussed on the previous slide then I'll pause for just a second here so you can take a closer look at anything I might have not addressed.  Next I'll transition to the operations and maintenance request.  Next slide, please.

Operation and maintenance is the largest appropriations, making up 36 percent or $78.5 billion of the overall department budget request.  O&M funds daily operations critical to sustaining readiness, building resiliency, and enhancing the department's wartime posture.  The $2.8 billion in growth from F.Y. '23 is largely driven by additional investment in people, weapons systems sustainment, and installation support.

The F.Y. '24 request continues to prioritize the department's most resilient resource, its people.  The budget request adds $588 million to support a 5.2 percent civilian pay raise, the largest in 40 years.  It also provides $316 million for continued implementation of the independent review commission recommendations for violence and sexual assault prevention and response, and provides $368 million for 39 unaccompanied dormitory projects.

Additionally, our budget request leverages climate investments to improve our efficiency and reach, providing $731 million for installation and operational energy programs.

For the Air Force, weapons systems sustainment requirements continue to grow due to both aging legacy platforms and the acquisition of new, more complex weapons systems.  In F.Y. '24, the Air Force adds $1.2 billion to this portfolio, funding 87 percent of the requirements. 

The PRC's investments in long range precision strike have put our forward air bases at risk.  This budget provides $453 million to support resilient distributed air basing efforts and to resource agile combat employment initiatives.  This budget supports Secretary of Defense Austin's priorities of taking care of people by increasing support to family programs, funding $73 million for CDC and youth programs, which is a 33 percent increase over F.Y. '23.  It also includes $361 million for improvements to I.T. infrastructure and actions to mitigate network vulnerabilities. 

The F.Y. '24 Space Force O&M budget also grows to $4.9 billion, $1.4 billion of this supports funding weapon systems sustainment at 83 percent of the requirement, maintaining 52 weapon system.

This budget provides $332 million in Space Force FSRM funding for the Thule Power generation upgrades, launch power systems repairs, and to make our initial investment in the Range of the Future initiative.  It also adds $21 million for operational test and training infrastructure, including SCIF facilities and cyber skills training for our guardians.

Finally, $30 million continues our partnership with Johns Hopkins University for intermediate senior — intermediate and senior level education, prioritizing space training, education and development of doctrine and tactics.

Next, we'll look at the military personnel appropriation.  Next slide please.  The Department of the Air Force's military personnel request is $42.1 billion.  Total military end strength for F.Y. '24 is 512,100 military members, which includes Air Force active, Guard and Reserve airmen and Space Force active guardians.

Airmen and guardians will receive a 5.2 percent military pay raise, along with a 4.2 percent increase to the basic allowance for housing, and a 3.4 percent increase to the basic allowance for subsistence accounts to help alleviate increased housing and living costs.  The F.Y. '24 request promotes professional development and service member transitions by providing $1.4 billion for permanent change of station moves.

The department continues to attract high quality airmen and guardians and to help retain them, this budget includes $648 million in bonus and retention funding for 65 critically skilled positions, including $250 million in aviation retention programs and $12 million for cyber retention programs.  The Space Force military appropriation continues to mature, giving them the autonomy to train and equip their guardians.  In this request, the Space Force grows to 9,400 guardians.

Now let's turn to military construction and military family housing.  Next slide please. The military construction and family housing request is $3.8 billion.  It funds 51 projects in 17 states and eight overseas locations, including near — including nearly $1.1 billion for 18 weapons systems beddown projects across eight installations.

This budget request continues to highlight the department's commitment to take care of the force and their families while also focusing on investments — investments on modern weapons system beddowns and critical infrastructure investments for increased global warfighter capabilities.

This budget funds $226 million for five European deterrent — Deterrence Initiative MILCON projects and $467 million for 11 Pacific Deterrence Initiative projects, adding resiliency and Joint Force lethality while enhancing the nation's posture in the INDOPACOM theater.

Additionally, this request continues to focus on the health and safety of the department's members and families by adding $50 million for a new dormitory complex at Lakenheath Air Base, $57 million for child development centers at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and Hanscom Air Force Base, and $229 million for military housing privatization initiative restructures.

MILCON and family — MILCON and military family housing are the final budget slides I have to show.  I'll now turn the briefing back over to Secretary Jones for closing comments.

MS. JONES:  Thank you, General Greiner.  The Department of the Air Force 2024 budget request provides an acceptable level of operational risk for the current force in order to develop and field the future force.  Our budget request maintains our commitment to balancing current, midterm, and longer-term capability and capacity while rapidly acquiring and fielding the military capabilities of tomorrow.

The operational imperatives provide the foundation to meet the National Defense Strategy priorities and other capabilities we need to deter, defend, and when necessary, defeat those who seek to prevent our nation and our allies and partners from being secure, prosperous and free.

This transformation is only possible with congressional support.  Stable, consistent and reliable funding will be the cornerstone of our success.  We cannot cede another year to the pacing challenge.  To quote General MacArthur, "The history of failure in war can almost be summed up in two words:  too late."

Next chart?  Thank you very much.  We welcome your questions.

STAFF:  Thank you, Honorable Jones and General Greiner.  We'll open it up to questions now.  Please state your name, your affiliation, and please, whom — whom it's directed to.

We'll start with Tara Copp, AP.

Q:  Hi, thank you for doing this.  I was wondering if you can elaborate a little bit on the collaborative combat aircraft?  I know that we've heard that 1,000 are the intention to buy but can you give us any sense of what the overall figure would be of that buy, if — if 1,000 were bought, and any additional details on what these aircraft might do?

MS. JONES:  So the number that was provided at the AFA by Secretary Kendall was an initial planning number.  It is not a program of record, it was intended to signal to industry and — and to those who are interested in this area that we are pursuing a significant number — not 10, not 20, but he used 1,000, and the planning factor for that was two for every NGAD that is planned currently and 300 for F-35s, again, as an initial number.

We don't know at this point if two is the right number for partnering with each of those other platforms.  That's more of a floor than a — a determined operational capacity.

And — and so what we're looking for is being able to use the funding in this budget for experimentation and testing, to explore operational structures, maintenance concepts, operational tactics, using this 1,000 aircraft as a planning number.

GEN. GREINER:  I think she hit everything.  We're standing up the experimental operations unit, we're — which really will define that CONOPS.  And so until we do that, I think it's premature to just, you know, try and figure out what exactly — or how exactly this will be used.

But there is an effort — part of the lines of effort in this — in this budget will get after that.

Q:  Just a quick follow-up — can you give us a sense of how heavily the future force structure would lean on these?  If there are 1,000 aircraft, would, you know, future strategy be around these collaborative combat aircraft instead of manned fighter jets?

MS. JONES:  We don't see this as a way to decrease the — the fighter capabilities, more as a way to mass using a more cost-effective platform.  So we don't see this causing a significant decrease in any of the fighter programs that we've planned.

STAFF:  Brian?

Q:  Hi.  Brian Everstine with Aviation Week.  A couple program questions.  First, we understand this budget outlines that the Air Force is going to go ahead with the F-135 core upgrade as opposed to use — using one of the ATP options.  What is — are there any other possible use cases for the XA100, XA101? What does — happen with all of that investment coming from the AFRL's AETP program?

And secondly, there's a ninefold increase in SAOC, the Survival Air Operations Center.  What does that money buy you?  And what's the schedule looking at for that program?

MS. JONES:  Why don't I start with the ATP and — and you can cover the SAOC?

So the — the question was based on the fact that the ATP is not transitioning to a program of record.  This was based on the fact that the requirements were most applicable only to the Air Force and so the entire cost of the program would have been borne by the Air Force instead of spread across the entire fleet of joint F-35s.

As a result, we've decided to move forward with the engine core upgrade.  We have $254 million in this year's budget for that particular effort.  However, we do plan to leverage a lot of the capabilities that were part of the ATP prototype for efficiency, thrust, platform level power, thermal management.  So it was not necessarily a sunk cost.  Those capabilities will be leveraged as we look at the next engines — as an example, the Next-Generation Adaptive Propulsion program, or NGAP, which has $375 million in the F.Y. '24 request will be building on all of the lessons learned from that program.

GEN. GREINER:  And then right on SAOC, I — I can't give exact details on numbers, but that — that ramp-up will begin to procure test articles for that program.

Q:  (inaudible).

GEN. GREINER:  Yeah. 

(CROSSTALK)

Q:  (inaudible) I've got a couple questions.  On the B-21, $673 million of production (inaudible) for this year.  What's your concerns that — about concurrency?  Because it hasn't flown yet.  It's still in development.  The secretary, I think, has signaled in the past acceptable levels of concurrency, but can you flesh it out a little bit?  Because that's a big chunk of money.  And then offensive space, in your interesting chart where you were populating, what is an offensive space satellite?  Is that a — one that fires lasers at others, or what?

MS. JONES:  So on the B-21, I think we're able to say that we have six...

GEN. GREINER:  Six aircraft.

MS. JONES:  ... at various levels of production concurrently at — at this point.

Q:  Different levels?

MS. JONES:  We're not able to say anything about total quantities in — in this setting.  I'm not sure if that fully answered the question.

Q:  But — but previously, they — Mr. — Mr. Kendall once said the F-25 acquisition malpractice in development (inaudible).  My question is this is a big chunk of production money while the thing is still in early development in — in the initial development has (inaudible).  Does — do you — and he had a philosophy about concurrency regarding that program in terms of what's an acceptable amount of concurrency.

MS. JONES:  I think the levels that — that I stated are within the realm of where he would like to be at this point.  We do expect the first flight later this year, and so we'll be able to see where there are — there are any retrofits or any changes that need to be made for future models, but I think he feels comfortable with the acquisition strategy at this point.

Any other thoughts?

GEN. GREINER:  No, I think you're current, ma'am.

Q:  Offensive space?

MS. JONES:  Yeah, so we need to be able to defend our space assets from anyone that might try to do us harm, and in this environment, we can't say too much.  That — that would be at a classified level.  But what I would say is that anything from the offensive space side is — is consistent with White House guidance about offensive space capabilities, and that's probably all we can say at an unclassified level.

Q:  All right.

STAFF:  All right, we'll come over here.  Courtney?

Q:  Yes, Courtney Albon with C4ISRNET.  I had two space questions.  One was I wondered if you could provide more details on the — the increase for resilient missile warning and tracking, what that additional funding will do?  Because it — it's not just an increase from what was enacted, but it looks like it's an increase from what was projected, you know, previously for this year.  And then also, there's been mention of additional funding for a new space battle management program.  Can you talk in more detail about what funding is in the budget for that and — and what that program is?

MS. JONES:  Do you want to cover the details of that?

GEN. GREINER:  Yeah, so I can highlight what's in there for the — for the ABMS piece of that.  As you — as you're aware, Secretary Kendall established a new PEO, DefPEO, for integration, and really, that looks across the entire Air Force and Space Force.  There's about 50 different programs in there.  But I — but I — and I don't have all the details, but we can give you additional details on what's all included in that — in that portfolio that — that General (inaudible) is now working.  But again, it's a — it's — it's to take that total integrated approach from a technical standpoint to ensure that — that — that we're bring the right systems to bear at the right time with the right capabilities.

STAFF:  Jennifer, please?

Q:  I had asked about resilient missile warning and tracking.

GEN. GREINER:  Yeah, tracking, if you want me to take that one, ma'am?

So primarily, so it's a — two — two different lanes from Space Development Agency, and then Space and Systems Command, really looking at those tranche capabilities from the SDA for LEO and MEO, and then missile warning capabilities for — for the Space Systems Command for EPIC One.  Most of those — most of those — so continued risk reduction, continued DOD work, initial capabilities being delivered later on in the — in the FYDP.

STAFF:  Great.  We'll — do you have — hand it down front here.  We'll take one.

Q:  Hi, thank you.  Chris Gordon. Air & Space Forces Magazine.  If I could just ask about long-range munitions.  You're at $550 on the JASSMs, and you want to eventually bring that up even more.  But you're at just $27 of the LRASMs, which would obviously be very important in the Pacific fight, which you're focusing on.  So is that the max that you can produce right now?  And are you going to try to grow that number in the future, or just — why so few?  And is — is it possible to — to grow that number?

MS. JONES:  That was the max capacity we could get, given the joint program on the LRASMs, if...

GEN. GREINER:  Yeah.

MS. JONES:  ... if I recall.

GEN. GREINER:  Yeah.  I'll hit your JASSM (inaudible) question first.  So in this — it's part of the economic — or part of the multiyear procurement strategy.  There is some facilitization dollars in there for the Air Force, about $77 million, that will help us ramp up.  So the goal would be to get to about $810-, but right now, we're at $550.  So over the course of a couple more years, we expect that we will get to $8- — $810, but right now, we are at $550, which, as the secretary just mentioned, that's max capacity.

On the LRASM, you're — you make a good point, and that's why we — what I didn't really highlight in the brief, but you'll see in the slides there is our effort to the New START for the Joint Strike Missile.  It's a joint — a joint — actually, just procuring a Norwegian-made missile capability, 48 of them in F.Y. '24 to $161 million.  The good news is, is most of that integration work on F-35s has been done.  There'll probably be some fine tuning we'll need to do.  But that'll help us bridge that gap until we continue to get more LRASMs, more capacity in — in — in that production line.

Q:  Great.  So that additional money is also to build capacity for LRASM production as well?

GEN. GREINER:  That's correct.  There — there is — there is a — there is some — there is some — there's about $55 million in facilitization money, but that's in the Navy budget, because this is a joint program.  So they — they are the ones that receive the $55 million for facil — facilitization to increase that production.

STAFF:  We'll come over here.  Sandra Erwin?

Q:  Thank you.  I'm Sandra Erwin with Space News.  Can you please provide a — a breakdown of the GPS enterprise funding?  The DOD chart indicates $980 million for RDT&E, and $279 million for procurement, but there's no breakdown.  Do you have any of those details you can provide, please?

GEN. GREINER:  I — I — I don't have it.  Do you have it from this (inaudible)?

MS. JONES:  No, I was going to say, (inaudible).

GEN. GREINER:  Yeah, I don't have the additional breakdown for you, Sandra, but I can tell you, what is different in this — what is different from '23 is — is the removal of two space vehicle procurements for GPS-3 in the '24 budget.  We did so.  We have a strong — we have a healthy GPS satellite constellation.  We actually have a little bit of a backlog with launch capability.  We're not — we have three that are awaiting launch, and so we think this was a low-risk move to help free up some of those additional resources to continue that pivot to — you know, more proliferated LEO and MEO missile warning/missile tracking capabilities.

Q:  So what is all this funding for in F.Y. '24 that's in this — in this DOD chart, $1.2 billion for the GPS Enterprise?

GEN. GREINER:  I'll have to — I'll have to take that for the record.  I — I — I'll have to give you the breakout.  I don't have that handy with me right now.  Thank you.

Q:  Thank you.

STAFF:  Right over here.  Mike Marrow?

Q:  Hi.  Michael Marrow with Breaking Defense.  Two engine questions.  The first is for the engine core upgrade for the F-135.  How long do you anticipate that's — that's going to take?  When is the Air Force, and also, the other military services expecting that solution can be cut into production?

GEN. GREINER:  I don't have any...

MS. JONES:  Do you have the details on that?

GEN. GREINER:  ... I don't have any details on that.  Yes.  I don't have a timeline.

MS. JONES:  Yes, I have a date in mind, but I would want to confirm that for sure.  We'll get back to you on that one.

Q:  Yes.  And separately on NGAP, we had previously been told that the Air Force was maybe expecting to push down to one vendor in the 2024 timeframe.  I was wondering if you could give us any update on that, whether that's still the plan of if there's been any change?

GEN. GREINER:  I don't have any details or any updates on that acquisition strategy.  So, I'll have to - we'll have to confirm with the - if there's a new strategy on that.

Q:  Thanks.

STAFF:  All the way the back, ma'am.

Q:  Hi, I'm (Kamaladi ?), I'm reporting for the (inaudible) Daily Pakistan media.  So, my sorry my voice is down.  I'm sitting here since 8:00 am.  My question is, recently President Biden made a visit to Poland and from there he embarked a, you know, a trip to Ukraine, which was a while, 10-hour journey.  So, my question to you is, was there any new budget discussed in deterring Russian aggression through Air Force?

MS. JONES:  There wasn't any change to this budget as a result of that visit.  There are some things that are being considered for the future that would be part of the supplemental at some point.  But nothing that was changed as part of this budget. 

What I would say that Ukraine has taught us the importance of air superiority, space superiority.  And also, making sure that we're taking care of our people and we're continuing to train them and make sure that they're ready to go.

STAFF:  Going to stay over here on the left, ma'am. 

Q:  I'll stand up, I'm short.  Rachel Cohen with Air Force Times.  I have one point of clarification and one actual question.  So, the clarification, on BAH and BAS, I thought it was too early in the year to have those percentages.  So, I'm curious where those numbers are from.  If you want to address that and then I'll -

GEN. GREINER:  Sure.  Yes, so that - you make a good point.  So, these are just are - these are basically our program factors for now, you are correct. In the fall we will revisit and we'll set them to a couple different factors based on housing surveys throughout the nation throughout the summer and then throughout the year.  And then there's a USDA table factor that we use for the - for the BAS.  And those will be reset. 

So, just to give you an example, last year we set BAH at 12.1 percent, BAS at 11.2, but those would have been - those would have - as we rolled out the '23 budget last year we would have been at a different level.  So, we'll be prepared to make those adjustments as we get into the fall.  But this basically in some additional resources to make sure we have a good starting position. 

Q:  And then on a separate topic.  So, your overseas funding pot, it's 7 billion this year, it was 8.6 last year.  And I'm curious what's behind that decrease.  You know, is it kind of the ripple effects of leaving Afghanistan?  Is it, you know, then what's behind that? 

MS. JONES:  So, the primary effort related to that is shifting toward the pacing challenge and making sure that we're using our funds most effectively.  So, we are working across DOD to look at these specifics associated with that.  It would specifically impact our CENTCOM posture.  And we're looking to make sure that we can balance readiness in that environment with a shirt toward what we need for the pacing challenge.

Q:  So, (inaudible) confirm the (inaudible) unit like taking units out of Al Udeid or things like that?  Or, you know, what are you talking about?

MS. JONES:  At this point there haven't been any basing decisions made.  Most likely it would be a combination of a number of different factors that would allow us to marginally reduce our costs in that area so that we can shift the INDOPACOM theater.

STAFF:  We have time for one more.  Ma'am?  Shelly? Shelly, up here?  Sorry.

Q:  Hi, Shelly Mesch with Inside Defense.  Last year procurement for ARRW was initially in the budget request and then the Air Force sought to defer that procurement.  Is there money for ARRW procurement?  And could you tell us more about what's in the budget for hypersonics this year?

GEN. GREINER:  (Inaudible) sure.  Yes.  So there's - so there's not procurement in the '24 line for ARRW.  There's $150 million - there's $150 million for RDT efforts.  That will allow us, as you're probably tracking, there's four planned all-up-round flight tests.  That will - that will - those will go into FY24 timeline, so it allows us to complete that timeline.

On HACM, there's, I believe, it's about $380 million, $384 million, I believe, for HACM as well.  All RDT&E effort, or RDT&E to continue the development on that.  I will tell you, I don't think a final decision's been made.  We'll wait and see how those test results come out.  It will be a discussion on a mix of weapons, right?  So, both of those are really geared towards two different types of platforms.  And so, I think we'll continue to do that analysis, see how these test results and then make a final decision on what mix of - what mix of hypersonic weapons is right for the Air Force going forward.

STAFF:  All right, ladies and gentlemen, that's all we have time for today.  Again, Honorable Jones, General Greiner, thank you to your time.  If you have any follow-up questions, please come see me afterwards or if you still need those materials.  Thank you.