INTERTHEATER AIRLIFT PROGRAMS.

SEC. 131. INTERTHEATER AIRLIFT PROGRAMS. (a) Authorization.— Of the amount provided in section 103 for procurement of aircraft for the Air Force— 108 STAT. 2685 (1) $103,707,000 shall be available for Non-Developmental Alternative Aircraft procurement; and (2) $2,364,622,000 shall be available for the C–17 aircraft program, of which— (A) $2,168,614,000 is for procurement of six C–17 aircraft; (B) $189,900,000 is for advance procurement of up to eight C–17 aircraft for fiscal year 1996; and (C) $6,108,000 is for C–17 modifications. (b) Requirement for Competition.— The Secretary of Defense shall use competitive procedures in selecting a source for the aircraft to be procured as Non-Developmental Alternative Aircraft under subsection (a). (c) Notice to Congress.— Funds described in subsection (a) may not be obligated for procurement under subsection (a) until 60 days after the date on which the Secretary of Defense submits to Congress a report describing the Secretary’s plan for the obligation of those funds. (d) Preservation of Intertheater Airlift Capacity.— It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Defense, in acquiring aircraft using funds provided in accordance with subsection (a), should structure the acquisition of those aircraft so as to preserve the aggregate intertheater airlift capacity of the Air Force (measured in millions of ton-miles per day) as of the date of the enactment of this Act.