CBO budget forecast: An allegorical interpretation

The Congressional Budget Office’s report out today summarizing long-term defense spending plans should be read a bit like a Lewis Carroll novel: Don’t take anything too literally and just have fun spotting all the hidden meanings.

Here’s what I found:

1) The USAF has dumbed-down requirements for the long-range strike aircraft from the B-2 to something more like a stealthy version of the previously-irreplaceable F-111. But, CBO says:

“To replace the intercontinental capability offered by today’s bombers, the air force would need to develop another aircraft sometime in the future.”

2) The CBO assumes that the Navy needs a new sea-based interceptor for ballistic missiles, which will enter production after 2014. (Note: That will be 12 years after the USN cancelled its previous attempt to build a new interceptor.)

3) The USN has been coy about attaching numbers to its plans to purchase a fleet of unmanned combat air systems, but CBO assumes an acquisition of 70 by 2025.

4) CBO assumes the air force will buy a second YAL-1 Airborne Laser in 2013 and begin buying seven more operational aircraft after 2017. (Note: Somebody needs to send a memo to Boeing to keep the 747 in production through 2020, or say hello to the A380 Airborne Laser.)