By WENDELL MINNICK and AARON MEHTA
TAIPEI AND WASHINGTON — The US Air Force’s decision not to fund the Combat Avionics Programmed Extension Suite (CAPES) program that would have upgraded 300 US F-16 fighter jets and 146 Taiwan F-16s comes as a blow to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.
The decision not to include CAPES in the Pentagon’s fiscal 2015 budget request was a “tough tradeoff,” according to Maj. Gen. James Martin, Air Force deputy assistant secretary for budget. He described the decision as part of a pattern of prioritizing “buying new capability over upgrading legacy equipment.
“We do have money in the budget to handle some key modification programs for our legacy equipment so we can keep it ready,” Martin said. “But the F-16 CAPES program is one program that we decided not to fund.”
On the likelihood that CAPES could be funded at a later date, Martin noted the service reviews budget decisions frequently, “but I’m not holding that door open.”
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