House Appropriators Advise $80 Million Cut to SOCOM 'Armed Overwatch' Procurement Request

摘要

The House Appropriations Committee is recommending cutting $80 million from the U.S. Special Operations Command's (SOCOM) $101 million procurement request for the "Armed Overwatch" program in fiscal 2021. Last year, congressional appropriators criticized the U.S. Air Force's handling of the light attack experiment and called for SOCOM to build requirements for such systems during the markup of the FY '20 National Defense Authorization Act--a transition that led to SOCOM's "Armed Overwatch" program. SOCOM called for the procurement of five aircraft under the program in the fiscal 2021 request,but House appropriators advised cutting $80 million from the request and said that the $80 million was "excess to need." While House appropriators counseled the $80 million procurement cut, they also recommended adding $20 million for Armed Overwatch research and development under SOCOM's nearly $231 million request for Aviation Systems Advanced Development.