Pressure from Congress to block the US Air Force's plan to retire 33 F-22 fighters could have repercussions on one of the service's priority programs, the Collaborative Fighter Aircraft.The Air Force's proposal to cut F-22s is part of a broader plan to shed 150 planes in fiscal year 2023 to free up funding for bigger priorities like the B-21 bomber, hypersonic weapons programs and next-generation air domain systems.The House Armed Services Committee's defense policy bill offered a strong rebuke to the strategy and, in particular, to the planned withdrawals of the F-22.Lawmakers not only rejected the plan to cut back on the planes, but called for older models, which are used primarily for training missions, to be upgraded to the latest F-22 configuration.The White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement to Congress last month that it "strongly opposes" House efforts to block the removal of planes and ships.Andrew Hunter, the Army Air Force's chief procurement officer, told reporters this week that impeding the service's divestment plan would slow progress on the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, which aims to launch a fleet of unmanned aircraft to increase the NGAD and other fighter aircraft during combat missions.The program is one of Army Air Secretary Frank Kendall's top priorities.“The concern I would have would be our ability to deliver a Collaborative Fighter Aircraft system to complement the NGAD.That's where I think we start to see the impacts,” Hunter told reporters during an Aug. 11 briefing at the Army Air Force's Life Cycle Industry Days conference in Dayton, Ohio."It would limit our ability to commit people and resources to an aggressive effort to get that capability up and running."The Air Force requested $51.5 million in fiscal year 2023 to transition technologies matured through the Skyborg program - the service's effort to demonstrate the usefulness of team fighters and unmanned aircraft - to the Collaborative Fighter Planes.Asked if additional funding from Congress would allow the Air Force to keep the F-22s and continue with the Collaborative Fighter Aircraft program, Hunter said there are infrastructure and personnel limitations that more money can't necessarily solve.Brigadier General Dale White, director of the Advanced Fighters and Aircraft program, told reporters during a separate briefing Aug. 11 that the service is working with F-22 manufacturer Lockheed Martin to develop an estimate of costs for the modernization of the 33 oldest aircraft.A 2019 analysis projected it would cost about $50 million per plane, but White said a number of variables, including supply chain constraints, could change that estimate."We're trying to put our arms around what has changed since the last time we did this," he said.The service plans to provide that data to Congress over the next month to inform budget deliberations, he added.© 2019 - 2022 All rights reserved.© 2019 - 2022 All rights reserved.