This is a representation of the chickenhawk bureaucrats.As a prior member of Air Combat Command, I can say that the Air Force fighter-pilot leadership is largely to blame for the AF’s plight. They allowed the entire AF infrastructure to go to waste while they continued to push for their F-22 program. Meanwhile their ground radar systems, maintenance teams, logistical support, cyber warfare capability, nuclear fleet, and space systems have all been allowed to rot all for the precious new plane. So now they have an F-22 that has not been deployable to the war zone. Gates has no confidence in the current Air Force leadership, otherwise you would not have seen a few top level Air Force firings, the return of TAC (as Global Strike), cyber command being removed from ACC as well as combat comm, and the navy being looked at as the choice service for ballistic missile defense and possibly for the future of our GPS-type systems.
The fighter pilots had the keys to the Air Force kingdom and they have blown it. I loved the military, but the truth is that the Air Force is just another beauracratic government agency that thinks little of the taxpayer money and run by powerful men disconnected from what does and does not work at a tactical level.
Hey, stop making sense. The USAF has always hated the close air support mission, preferring instead to build super high tech super expensive toys.
Meanwhile, our infantry still carries a 50 year old rifle, wears forty-pound body armor, and carries twenty pound radios. The USAF can cry me a river-THEY aren’t paying in blood.
This is a representation of the chickenhawk bureaucrats.