Gene Taylor and Military Spending

The Hill - Wrangling starts over presidential chopper

Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), who chairs the Armed Services Seapower and Expeditionary Forces subcommittee, told The Hill that lawmakers have to tackle too many Pentagon procurement challenges in the fiscal 2010 budget and a new presidential chopper does not appear to be a priority for Obama.

“If the president can wait, I can wait,” Taylor said in a short interview. “We have to put the money where the priorities are.”

The House Armed Services Committee is starting its 2010 budget approval process Thursday. Taylor’s subcommittee is slated to mark up its portion of the defense authorization bill Friday. His panel has jurisdiction over Navy programs. The Navy runs the presidential helicopter program.

Taylor’s position on the new presidential helicopter, also known as VH-71, is likely to spark some intense debate on the committee and could place him at odds with defense appropriators who are weighing the possibility of salvaging the VH-71.

However, Taylor indicated he would favor either an existing military helicopter or one in development for the president. Additionally, he supports spending money on upgrading the existing fleet of decades-old presidential helicopters to enable them to fly for as many as 10 more years.

Government Executive - House panel reverses cuts in aircraft programs

At Friday's Seapower Subcommittee markup, lawmakers responded to a Government Accountability Office warning in March that aircraft carrier catapult development costs were exceeding its budget and that one portion of the testing program is two years behind its original schedule.

Navy officials are committed to the electromagnetic system, which has been touted as more powerful and less stressful for the rest of the ship.

If the new catapult doesn't work, the ship essentially will be "a $7 billion helicopter carrier," said Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Gene Taylor, D-Miss. That would leave the Navy with just nine fully functional flattops.

His panel also took aim at the Navy's management of the troubled Littoral Combat Ship program, though members essentially agreed to relax a $460 million per ship cost cap by removing government costs from cap calculations.

Each LCS -- the Navy wants 55 -- originally was to cost no more than $220 million. The ships are smaller and faster than the Navy's $1 billion destroyers, designed for close-to-shore missions like mine-hunting and counterterrorism.

"I will not propose one penny more," Taylor said. The markup gives contractors Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics a "take it or leave it" offer to continue building the ships, he said. If they drop out of the program, the markup authorizes the Navy to put together a proposal for other contractors to bid on.

"A lot of people would jump at the chance to build that ship," at $460 million apiece, Taylor insisted.

Navy Times - Capitol Hill opens door for Super Hornets

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill might force the Navy to buy more Boeing-made F/A-18 Super Hornets, a move that would override the Defense Department’s formal budget request in an effort to fill the Navy’s so-called “fighter gap.”

As the annual defense authorization bill begins to make its way through Congress, Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) on Friday inserted into the bill a clause — known as a “mark” — that gives the Navy permission to enter into a new multi-year contract with Boeing.

“The mark recognizes, even if the secretary of defense does not, that the Navy is facing an acute shortage of strike fighters to fill air wings of our carriers in the coming decade,” Taylor said at a meeting of the seapower subcommittee.

“This mark clearly indicates that the Navy should build more of these planes instead of trying to extend the life of the older and less capable F/A18A thru D Hornets. It makes absolutely no sense to me that the department would pay $26 million to extend the flying life of an older plane by just 1,500 hours, when for $50 million they could buy a brand new, more capable plane that is good for 8,000 hours,” Taylor said in a statement.

The Navy is facing a projected shortfall in fighter jets as the older F/A-18 Hornets wear out faster than the new F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter is arriving to replace them.

The Defense Department formally requested to lower the number of Super Hornets purchased in fiscal year 2010, and Navy officials have officially voiced strong support for the F-35C, which is scheduled to join the fleet in 2015.

A Navy spokesman on Friday declined to comment on the move, which could significantly reshape the fighter fleet over the next decade.