The Defense Department is asking Congress for permission to redirect $5.4 billion in previously approved money to other programs—including an effort to speed up the delivery of two Air Force One presidential jets.
Pentagon officials say an injection of $150 million could move the delivery of VC-25B aircraft up to 2027—two years earlier than the current 2029 projection. That funding would “procure long-lead spares and operational support items required to field the accelerated VC-25B aircraft,” according to the Pentagon’s annual omnibus reprogramming document, dated July 15.
Air Force officials previously said they might be able to speed up the delivery of the much-delayed and over-budget VC-25B aircraft if some of the requirements were relaxed. The reprogramming request lists the program as a “congressional special interest item.”
In parallel, President Trump is retrofitting a Boeing 747 once owned by the Qatari royal family to use in the interim until the new VC-25Bs are ready. That retrofit project will reportedly cost close to $1 billion. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink has already said the service is planning to use “early to need” money from its Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program to fund the Qatari jet retrofit.
Reprogramming requests are submitted to Congress annually to allow the Defense Department to move money from one program to another. In total, this year’s request asks to move more than $5.4 billion from funds appropriated in fiscal 2025, 2024, and 2023, according to the document obtained by Defense One. Inside Defense first reported the reprogramming document.
“This reprogramming action provides funding in support of higher priority items, based on unforeseen military requirements, than those for which originally appropriated; and are determined to be necessary in the national interest,” the document says.
The reprogramming would add money to priority programs for the Pentagon, including more than $500 million to the THAAD missile-defense system. The Pentagon blew through one-quarter of its THAAD interceptors during Israel and Iran’s 12-day war.
The funds will “increase the inventory of THAAD interceptor due to expenditures from current
operations and to ensure Combatant Commanders have an Upper Tier Integrated Air Missile Defense capability for future operations, including the Golden Dome for America initiative”; and speed up “redesign efforts” to fix obsolescence problems, according to the request.
The request also asks for money to fund new programs, such as the Army’s common autonomous multi-domain launcher, or CAML, and to develop a hypersonic missile for the HIMARS platform.
To pay for these efforts, the Pentagon outlined which programs will be cut in the reprogramming, listing those funds as “early to need” and taking from delayed programs that aren’t ready to be spun up yet. Some of the cuts reflect new direction from Pentagon leaders, including the Army’s effort to get rid of outdated equipment and axe programs such as the M-10 Booker.
Notably, the reprogramming request also details how much money the Pentagon will need for its deferred-resignation program, which allowed employees to quit working but still be paid through September and offered early retirement to longtime employees. The program is part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s goal to shed roughly 60,000 DOD employees.
Workforce changes will require the Pentagon to spend hundreds of millions in unanticipated workforce retention expenses for applicants and payouts for annual leave balances for personnel who accepted the DRP, according to the request.
This and similar efforts across the federal government are collectively paying more than 154,000 people not to work, the Washington Post reported today.
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