The House version of the 2013 Defense Authorization Bill calls for maintaining key “vital systems” that are now part of the services’ inventories. The bill would fund: restoration of three Navy cruisers that otherwise would be headed for mothballs; preservation of tactical airlift planes that would be tapped for divestment; retention of the Air Force’s Global Hawk Block 30 unmanned intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, rather than putting them into storage; and maintaining minimum production levels for Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, and Hercules recovery vehicles.
