The ChAir Force's aircraft carrier.
Posted on 10/25/2007 12:59:23 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
WASHINGTON — The secretary of the Air Force and the service’s top officer told Congress they are worried the force is getting too small and its aircraft are getting too old to respond immediately to a new major threat overseas.
“It would be a challenge. We would break all the rules and all the established procedures to be able to deliver whatever [the combat commanders] required,” Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley told members of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
“But the question is the capacity, the sustainability and reliability of some of these older platforms to be able to do that.”
Secretary Michael Wynne reiterated plans to draw down the active-duty force by 5,600 airmen in the coming year, but said the cost-cutting move is hurting the readiness of the force.
“It is an unpleasant reality that at some point we will be too small,” he said. “But budget pressures are forcing us to be a smaller Air Force, whether it starts with equipment or people.”
Wynne estimated the force needs another $20 billion per year to boost its research and production lines to replace the service’s aging aircraft.
He acknowledged that sum is an unlikely request, but warned that shortfalls in the force’s transport and attack capabilities already are starting to increase.
“I have been told the Air Force isn’t ‘bleeding,’ and we all grieve for the Army and the Marines,” he said. “We are working hard to set the conditions for victory with them. But when the Air Force does bleed, I worry some enemy will discover that we have forfeited air dominance.”
Wednesday’s hearing was the second in a series looking at the long-term strategic challenges facing the services. Lawmakers said the message so far has been that the military will need a large infusion of cash to make up for equipment losses and modernization following combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“[Army] Gen. [William] Casey and Secretary [Pete] Geren recently testified to this same committee that the Army was out of balance, and I am absolutely convinced that it’s not just the Army — it’s the Department of Defense,” said Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J.
“The Air Force’s aging aircraft fleet is a clear indicator that the Air Force is out of balance as well.”
Buy more F-22s!!
I have an idea chAir Force. Stop spending so dang much money on beautifying your bases. Have your personel live in barracks, and spend money on equipment. I tell people they should join the Air Force for 1 reason only. They have the most cushy quarters and jobs out of all the military. You Air Force guys know it’s true.
The last 15 years have been all about downsizing, and our military spending as a share of GDP has been steadily shrinking, at the same time that our threats and obligations have been increasing.
Maybe in five years. I think for the short term the emphasis will be in other areas.
Although I agree. The media and many politicians focus on IEDs and whatever else is in the contemporary public conciousness. Since everyone right now is sceaming for more uparmored HMMWVs and an even newer cougars just a few months later, other systems elsewhere are suffering because billions are poured into dead end systems that will have little use for the DoD in 2 years once the big Army leaves Iraq.
Think about it...no matter what the situation was...if you were highest ranking member of the USAF in front of a Congressional Appropriations Committee, you would say the exact same thing...
“Our planes are old, the service is too small, we need more funds...”
It certainly was true back in my day.
To my Navy buddies: Anchors Aweigh.
To my Army buddies: Uh-rah.
To my Marine buddies: Semper Fi.
And to my fellow Airmen: Fore!
“You Air Force guys know it’s true”.
Always has been true, even since the USAF was the Army Air Corps. We like it that way.
I did have to rough it once or twice. I remember a BOQ with only black and white TV.
Why? Except for basic training and a few lodging facilities, open bays are a thing of the past across all services.
They were done away with to improve the standard of living for our personnel.
Also, the money spent on facilities is a drop in the bucket compared to what it costs to buy new aircraft and equipment.
I tell people they should join the Air Force for 1 reason only. They have the most cushy quarters and jobs out of all the military.
It's a good thing that AF personnel join to serve their country and perform the mission. If they only joined for comfy quarters, we would have an awful Air Force. It wouldn't be much good for the missions we currently perform all over the world to include Iraq and Afghanistan.
I thought the Navy had the best chow.
The ChAir Force's aircraft carrier.
“Think about it...no matter what the situation was...if you were highest ranking member of the USAF in front of a Congressional Appropriations Committee, you would say the exact same thing...
“Our planes are old, the service is too small, we need more funds...””
That’s wisdom.
A lot of our planes are downright ancient and newer planes such as the C-17 are putting on far more hours than projected when purchased, meaning that they will wear out far faster than expected.
The Pentagon just upped the order by 20 F-22’s and have 1800 F-35’s on order.
LLS
Those nations that have have found their aircraft and bases going up in flames.
Now I know that the Navy and the Marine Corp each have an aviation component but its based on tactical operations mostly.Close air support and air defence of the Carriers.
The Air Forces Job is Strategic in nature from Space Defence right through to Air Superiority.
Now when I served in the Air Force as a Patrol Dog handler in SAC our living conditions were not all that great. Yes we did’nt live in a barracks with an open floor plan and no privacy but these places were not palaces either. Most of the money the Air Force spent was on combat capability.
All one has to do is look at all of the technologies the Air Force has developed to improve power projection and Air Superiority. The Navy has’nt done that. The Marine corp has not done that. The U.S. Air Force Did That.
If I were able to rejoin the Air Force I would do so still and I recommend that any youth graduating from high school join the air force. Its a very Technological organization and it cares for its troops.
Thats not to say the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corp don’t care for their troops. The U.S. Air Force just has a different Mission and social Structure then the other services.
I hope I explained my thoughts clearly.
I confess, I have a selfish interest in the F-22.
“Now I know that the Navy and the Marine Corp each have an aviation component but its based on tactical operations mostly.Close air support and air defence of the Carriers.”
You don’t know what you are talking about.
But timing is everything. To make this pitch in the middle of a war that's costing us up the wazoo already is not real bright. Don't alienate the rapidly diminishing good will you've still got. Keep up the good work with what you've got, win the damn thing and you'll get enough planes to cover tha badlands.
Do you actually live near an Air Force base?
Before the Air Force recently rebuilt the base housing where married enlisted men live with their families, the area was a slum. The apartment buildings were falling apart. It was shameful how we expected our service men to live, and we didn't pay them nearly enough to afford reasonable housing off the base, so their choices were live in nasty apartments or leave the service. The Air Force started taking a huge hit in retention, so they finally increased wages a bit and bulldozed the old apartments, and built new ones.
The new ones are still tiny and spartan, but they are clean, reasonably well constructed, and livable.
From what I heard, the barracks were no better.
I worked on the base for a while a little over a decade ago. Most of the buildings were in a pretty sad state. They had bug problems (as in they would tear out a wall and the cockroaches would come flooding out).
They have the most cushy quarters and jobs out of all the military.
They are definitely the least physically demanding of the branches of service. Their members also tend to have more skills that earn them far better incomes outside the service.
If you want to have an Air Force, you had better pay them reasonably, and give them reasonable housing, or they are eventually going to be asking themselves why they should stay in the service and have their family live in a slum to protect a country that doesn't value them enough to put a decent roof over their heads.
The reason the military doesn't have money to spend on new equipment isn't because they are wasting it on trivial things, it is because they are spending it on bomb, bullets, fuel, salaries for a larger number of active military, and other goods that are expended. The war is draining their budgets.
I work in the aerospace defense industry. The market is tight because the military doesn't have money to spend on developing new weapons systems, or for upgrading existing ones. They are concentrating on what they MUST have to wage the war now.
Back about 40+ years ago, my USAFSS squadron was based right next to the 9th ASA at Clark AB, in the Philippines. All the barracks were pre-WW2, with open bays in the middle and 4-man rooms at either end. All the rooms and bays had louvres, not windows. The soldiers (with whom were close both professionally and personally) groaned when the walked by our barracks on the way to the pool. Looking through the louvres, they could see that the Air Force mattresses were twice the thickness of theirs. We all ate from the same stores, so the chow was abominable in both units.
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