The U.S. Air Force requests for over 100 new aircraft with 13 different models in their Fiscal Year 2011 Budget.
On the top of the list by volume is the MQ-9 Reaper an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) with a total request of 48 units. The basic MQ-9 system consists of the aircraft, sensors, a control station, communications equipment, weapon kits, support equipment, simulator and training devices, initial spares and training. The total cost for all 48 units is just over one billion dollars. The prime contractor is General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems Inc.
The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F-35 is second with a requested quantity of 23 aircraft at a total cost of 4.5 billion dollars. The F-35 is the much talked about next generation strike fighter with Lockheed Martin as prime contractor, while Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems are principal partners in the project.
The Light Mobility Aircraft program is third with a requested quantity of 15 and a total program cost of 65 million dollars. This program plans to acquire Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) aircraft to satisfy the USAF light mobility mission requirement. The new program has no chosen manufacturer as of yet. According to Government data there are currently 22 interested vendors.
The USAFA Powered Flight Program is requesting a quantity of 12 Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) aircraft for the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, CO. with a program cost of about 4 million dollars.
The RQ-4 Global Hawk is an unmanned aircraft system with a total procurement cost of just over 1 billion dollars for 4 units. This aircraft is fully autonomous with a range of over 9000 nautical miles.
The CV-22 Osprey also on the list for a quantity and a cost of just over 500 million dollars for 5 complete systems. The CV-22 is a Special Operations Forces (SOF) variant of the V-22 vertical lift, multi-mission aircraft.
