While the Air Force is seeking to halt the procurement of MQ-9 Reapers in its fiscal year 2022 budget request, the House Armed Services Committee's chairman's mark instead aims to direct the service to add six of the drones to its inventory. The defense policy bill draft, obtained last week by Inside Defense ahead of its public release today, proposes an extra $115 million in funding for the half-dozen General Atomics aircraft. The move comes after House appropriators similarly pushed the service to buy six Reapers in their draft defense subcommittee bill earlier this summer. While Air Force officials recently proposed ending procurement for the MQ-9s in the coming fiscal year, they stopped short of shutting down the production line -- a step they unsuccessfully floated in their FY-21 budget request. Lawmakers ultimately rejected the push and directed the service to purchase 16 more drones. Still, lawmakers aren't standing in the way of the service's proposed RQ-4 Block 30 divestments, after a similar appeal last year fell flat as legislators called for an acquisition strategy tied to a Global Hawk replacement that would mitigate risk to combatant commanders. In all, the Air Force's budget request seeks to retire 20 of the Block 30s next fiscal year.
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