Senator considering new Air Force tanker lease plan

Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., is considering a proposal that would allow the Air Force to lease up to 20 Boeing tanker aircraft and to purchase no more than 80, according to congressional aides.

The proposal could likely make its way into the fiscal 2004 Defense authorization conference, although congressional aides say the vehicle for the plan remains in flux. Previously, Warner and Armed Services ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich., had called on the Air Force to consider leasing up to 25 tankers and purchasing the remaining planes through standard acquisition practices.

The Air Force's response to the Warner-Levin plan included an assessment of several lease and purchase options, but ultimately concluded that leasing all 100 aircraft is the best choice. Such a plan would permit the Air Force to immediately modernize its tanker fleet, and would balance cost savings with the reality of available funds, according to senior defense officials.

While the new Warner proposal would save about $4.2 billion, it would require the Air Force to scrape together between $4 billion and $5 billion over a six-year period beginning in fiscal 2006, congressional aides said. However, the new plan would not affect the aircraft delivery schedule as currently planned in the Pentagon's 100-aircraft lease arrangement.

Air Force officials did not return calls seeking comment by presstime.

Warner's committee is the only one of four that has not signed off on the Pentagon's request to approve the deal in a 2003 reprogramming action submitted to lawmakers this summer. If Warner's latest plan is included in the fiscal 2004 Defense authorization bill, it could pre-empt efforts by lawmakers who back the Air Force's plan to bypass Warner's committee and approve the deal in the fiscal 2004 Iraq supplemental appropriations conference. The 100-aircraft lease plan boasts numerous supporters in the House, and Warner's new proposal would likely face opposition in conference.

Language proposed by Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash., supporting the 100-aircraft lease plan is likely to be inserted into the supplemental. The House version of that bill created a place-holder provision for such legislation with an amendment calling for the Air Force to describe a study of alternatives for replacing its aging fleet of KC-135 tankers. A similar measure was proposed during Senate debate, but it was removed at the last minute by Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, at the request of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a vocal opponent of the deal.

It is unclear how much funding would be required for the 100-aircraft lease in fiscal 2004. If the transaction is scored as an operating lease under OMB circulars, the fiscal 2004 funding requirements would be minimal. But McCain Wednesday called on OMB Director Josh Bolten to revisit the tanker lease issue in light of new information included in recent GAO and CBO studies that assert the Air Force's current tanker proposal fails to meet four of five criteria required for an operating lease. McCain's letter gave OMB until Tuesday to respond.