More F-35s, Compass Call replacements make it onto Air Force wish list

AIR FORCE READ OF THE DAY

More F-35s, Compass Call replacements make it onto Air Force wish list
By Stephen Losey
Apr 8, 02:45 PM
An F-35A Lightning II fighter jet assigned to the 6th Weapons Squadron lands after a training mission at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, March 16, 2021. (William Lewis/Air Force)
An F-35A lands after a training mission at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., on March 16, 2021. The Air Force's spending wish list for fiscal 2023 includes money to add seven more F-35As to its fleet. (William Lewis/U.S. Air Force)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force’s wish list for fiscal 2023 would include billions of dollars for more, brand-new F-35A fighter jets as well as EC-37 Compass Calls aircraft, hypersonic technology tests and construction projects for bases recovering from natural disasters.

The biggest item on the $4.6 billion unfunded priorities list, obtained by Defense News, is $979 million for procurement of the new Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft, which will replace the decades-old EC-130H that now performs that mission. That money would buy four used Gulfstream G550 business jets that contractor L3Harris Technologies would transform into the new Compass Calls, as well as spare engines and the kits and components needed for the modifications.

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel Lt Col Charlie Brown SSG Michael Noll Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Cpl Vic Burk MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. SGT Charlie Lee PO2 Marco Monsalve SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth ] SSG William Jones Sgt (Join to see) 1SG Dan Capri CDR Andrew McMenamin, PhD SrA John Monette SPC Nancy Greene SGT Mark Anderson SFC Bernard Walko GySgt Jack Wallace SPC Michael Terrell SGT Steve McFarland