Conference talks to see tug-of-war over JCA

As the House and Senate meet to iron out differences in the 2008 defense authorization bill, a campaign is accelerating to eliminate a polarizing Senate provision that would threaten the Army’s control over the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) — a program it currently shares with the Air Force.

{mosads}The stakes are high for the opponents of the Senate provision, which directs the Pentagon to assign responsibility to the Air Force for all fixed-wing airlift functions and missions. A couple of amendments seeking to nix the language did not come to a vote when the Senate considered the defense authorization bill last month, which makes the conference process the last chance to strike the provision.

Three members of the House Armed Services Committee — Del. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) and Reps. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) and Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) — are lobbying colleagues to push conferees to eliminate the Senate provision. They are preparing to send out to conferees a letter, possibly as early as Tuesday, that has already garnered significant support, including signatures from Reps. Chet Edwards (D-Texas), John Larson (D-Conn.), Tom Davis (R-Va.), Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) and Jeff Miller (R-Fla.).

In addition, the effort has the backing of the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS), the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS), the Air Force Association and the Association of the United States Army.

In the same vein, Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) are also working on a letter to the conferees.

The Department of Defense has also jumped into the fray, opposing the Senate language as part of the 2008 defense authorization appeals package that it recently sent to the Hill.

The Senate language accompanies a shift of $157 million from the Army’s procurement request for the JCA to the Air Force’s budget.

The Army has argued that it does not have enough logistics support from the Air Force. But in their committee report accompanying the authorization measure, Senate authorizers say that claim has a familiar ring: “I can’t count on it in wartime if I don’t own it all the time.” The report noted that the same arguments were made against reforms included in the Goldwater-Nichols Act, designed in large part to end inter-service rivalry.

Senate report language stresses that the Air Force is better positioned to provide logistics support, while the Army “would be better served” focusing its “scarce resources” on those missions for which it is “uniquely qualified.”

The Senate language highlights the debate over the two services’ roles and missions, which has been building in Congress and at the Pentagon ever since former acquisitions czar Kenneth Krieg directed the two services to enter a joint program for a smaller cargo airplane.

In its appeals package, the Pentagon argues that the JCA is an important element in the Army’s fixed-wing modernization strategy for the Army Reserve and National Guard, replacing the beaten Sherpas and some of the C-12 Huron aircraft. The transfer of funds would cause a delay in the fielding of the JCA, according to the Department of Defense.

The Pentagon also argues that the JCA will serve the Joint Force Commander on the battlefield “regardless of which service owns the aircraft.” It is the Joint Force Commander who “is ultimately responsible for determining support requirements and prioritizing intra-theater airlift missions,” according to the appeals document.

In addition, the Pentagon argues that the military services have developed a joint concept of operations, which includes provisions for joint training, maintenance and supply.

While the Army and Air Force share the program office, the Army for the coming year has the lead in the program, also known as the “program executive.” The Army has a more immediate need for the aircraft, while the Air Force is not planning buy the aircraft until 2010. The Air Force leadership has publicly supported the JCA, also stressing its potential to be bought and used by air forces around the globe.

There is concern that if the program is transferred solely to the Air Force, the service is not resourced and does not have the necessary force structure to take it over effectively, according to a Pentagon official.

This concern was also echoed as part of a series of answers the Army sent in response to a letter sent earlier this month by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) to Gen. Richard Cody, vice chief of staff of the Army.

Levin’s letter sought to clarify some of the stickier points in the JCA debate, including questions about why transferring the JCA to the Air Force would result in delays and why splitting the intra-theater lift mission would be more efficient.

Meanwhile, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, and adjutants general across the country are sounding an alarm that a significant delay — or a potential cancellation — of the program could wreak havoc on the Guard’s ability to respond to domestic emergencies.

Guard supporters argue that the Senate provision could lead to the loss of the planned assignment of 54 JCAs to Army National Guard units in 13 states and territories and jeopardize the assignment of an additional 24 aircraft to Air National Guard units in eight other states and territories. Under the most recent round of Base Realignment and Closure, the Air National Guard is expected to lose significant airlift capability, and Guard leaders are planning to fill those gaps with the new JCA.

Lt. Gen. Clyde Vaughn, the director of the Army National Guard, told The Hill last week during a conference of the Association of the United States Army that he is not “comfortable with it [JCA] in the hands of the Air Force … speaking strictly from an Army perspective.” He also added that he did not “favor” the Joint Cargo Aircraft strategy but would have much rather stayed with the Army’s initial version of it, known as the Future Combat Aircraft.

While most see the Senate provision as posing the biggest threat to the JCA program, supporters are also angling to eliminate a House provision in the 2008 defense authorization bill that would make funding for the JCA dependent on the Pentagon’s submitting several pending reports to the committee. Those reports are due to Congress in December.

L-3 Communications Holdings, which teamed up with Alenia North America and Boeing, won the contract with Alenia’s C-27 J aircraft. The selection of the C-27J by the Army and Air Force marks a boon for the Florida and Mississippi congressional delegations.