The United States Navy has requested a budget cut from $2.1 billion to $346 million for Link Plumeria, which is the special access program for the F/A-XX program under the Navy’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
The cut is steep, as the proposed budget for the Link Plumeria, as laid out in FY24, was set to be at least $2.2 billion a year from 2024 to 2028, amounting to about $9 billion.
Link Plumeria has previously faced pressure over “unjust” requirements from the House Armed Service Committee, who originally sought to cut the program by $1.1 billion for FY24. The cuts were criticized by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and ultimately were rejected.
The statement by the OMB in response to the cut argued that “The language makes it impossible for the Navy to satisfy a critical element of the NDS in support of Joint Force priorities. The 70 percent reduction breaks the program and leaves the acquisition strategy unexecutable.”
According to Breaking Defense, Rear Adm. Ben Reynolds, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget, told reporters last week that the Navy was already seeking to delay about $1 billion for the F/A-XX program due to constraints by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which capped the national defense spending budget for FY25 at $895 billion, leaving the Navy and Marine Corps with a budget of $257.6 billion.
With that, much of the program’s money will need to be disbursed amongst future FY budgets, which will likely delay the F/A-XX even further as Boeing previously announced plans to stop F/A-18 production in FY25.