USAF's opening bid [updated with link]

DAILY BRIEFING: Air Force chief argues against diverting funds to Army, By Megan Scully, CongressDaily, January 26, 2007

Get used to hearing this story. The near-term threat MUST be countered by something else--typically long term (where China typically comes in).

Here, the USAF Chief takes a far better tack: cut us and you cut our support to ground troops.

Best counter: "Fine. You do need to protect and even expand your support craft. Now let's talk about your platforms not currently in the fight and your long-term plans for acquisitions."

And yeah, that's where the China card gets pulled.

So consider this an opening bid...

Thanks to Steffany Hedenkamp for sending this.

Comments

[JFRiley]

Stories like this make Army Officers like me loath the Air Force. This NEEDS to get out to more people. When people say we don't need a bigger defense budget, I say, "correct, but we MUST reallocate how we spend what we get." And that means less F-22s and less Seawolf subs. To think how many more Brigades the Army and Marines could have if we weren’t spoon fed BS about how we MUST have those platforms to counter a mythical China threat.

[Allen]

Hey, it torques off some of us AF officers, too. We should cancel the F-22, Seawolf, F-35, etc., and buy C-17s, BCTs, and Predators. You can buy 20 Predators for the cost of one F-22.

One of my peers pointed out something interesting this morning. You go on Army, Navy, and Marine bases, and the memorials you find are usually about people. You go on Air Force bases, and there are numerous memorials to machines. That speaks volumes about the core focus of each of the services.

If I had my way, we'd move most of the AF to the guard and reserves, with some AD presence in each unit (just enough to deploy with 1/4 to 1/2 of the jets, which is pretty much typical of most flying squadron deployments). Then we'd take those 200,000 or so AD billets and convert them to 50% BCTs and 50% civil affairs support.

But, I'm retiring this year, and am anxiously awaiting my effective retirement date so I can start writing what I really think...

[Paul]

If you want to transfer the most money, keep it within the Army and cancel the FCS (the largest DOD appropriation in history).Though I wouldn't cancel the F-22, I would lower the requirement to a "silver bullet" force, because what's their use after day 5 in any major war?

[Allen]

There are more than enough F-22s either on the flightline or in the pipeline to serve as a robust 'silver bullet' force.

I agree with you on FCS. The Army is making the same mistake the Air Force always does--focusing on the machine vice the man.