WASHINGTON. Omnibus spending legislationH.R. 1625 (115) for Fiscal Year 2018, filed by lawmakers in the U.S. on Wednesday evening, provides $1.3 trillion in funding through the end of September 2018 that includes a significant and unexpected boon to the aerospace community. It boosts military aircraft procurement with funding for 143 more aircraft than originally requested by military services within the U.S. Department of Defense.
In a vote today, the House passed the bill onto the Senate, which needs to respond quickly if Congress is to avert another government shutdown. Funding for the federal government runs out Friday night, 23 March 2018.
The legislation includes provisions for:
- 20 additional Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter military aircraft, valued at $2.9B, bringing the 2018 total to 90;
- 3 added Boeing KC-46 refueling tanker aircraft, valued at $510M;
- 10 more Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet twin-engine, carrier-capable multirole fighter aircraft, for a total of 24 in FY18;
- 3 added Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft;
- 8 more Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey;
- 12 C-130J, 5 MC-130J, and 1 HC-130J aircraft;
- 6 MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned helicopters;
- 9 MQ-1 Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft systems (UAS);
- 2 C-37B; and
- A number of helicopters, including additional CH-53K U.S. Marine Corps King Stallion, AH-64E Apache, UH-72 Lakota, and UH-60 Black Hawk rotor-wing aircraft.
Aside from military aircraft spending, the omnibus bill, as it is being called, includes: $18 billion in total budgetary resources for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other several provisions benefitting the business aviation community. Read more here: http://www.intelligent-aerospace.com/articles/2018/03/omnibus-agreement-funds-faa-nextgen-modernization.html
