[thegreatbeast]

A number of things:
The Air Force today has nothing to do with the Air Force extant seven years ago, thank God! Craig is presenting a bill to a new management that has no responsibility for the bill.
Craig should be spoken to quietly. I don't doubt that Secretary Rumsfeld can make this guy an offer he can't refuse. Hopefully, it will be behind closed doors as you don't want the kids to see this!
Geez Louise, how many times are we going to have these base reductions? Where did this idea of having 5 or 6 companies(AOLTIMEWARNERSEARSSONYTARGETCOKE.com) or 5 or 6 bases is the best way to go? This base closing process has been going on for an awful long time.
A lot of analysis is still going on regarding the War in Iraq. We are hardly over the first blush of a campaign well executed. A little time might serve while we digest who did what over ther and over here. I don't see rushing to give high brass more brass. It'll keep.

[El Gato]

Geez Louise, how many times are we going to have these base reductions? Where did this idea of having 5 or 6 companies(AOLTIMEWARNERSEARSSONYTARGETCOKE.com) or 5 or 6 bases is the best way to go? This base closing process has been going on for an awful long time.

I agree that the BRAC business has gone far enough. During the Vietnam drawdown, the Air Force reduced the number of Air Material Areas, big logistics bases, (Air Logistics Centers since about '74) to five. BRAC reduced that to three, larger ones. Tinker AFB in Oklahoma, is now so crowded that there is little space to put anything else, which if they closed still another ALC, they would need to do. (Warner-Robbins GA, Ogden UT, and OK city OK are the current three). Additionally they've assigned all the AWACS and the Navy E-6s there.

We've mothballed, or sent to museums, 1/3 of the B-1B, fleet, not because we don't need them, but in order to save enough money on flight hour costs to keep thd other sixty some flying. (UPDATE, I've just discovered Congress has overuled that plan, even though it was already underway, with B-1B. See Air Force Association We've only got about 20 B-2s, and less than 100 B-52Hs. The B-52 is undergoing an avionics "mid-life" upgrade. It needs new engines, the ones it has are as old as the airframes, the last of which came off the line in 1964, and have been rebuilt many, many times and they are tired. Boeing has done much of the design work required to replace the 8 relatively fuel hungry (although not as hungry as those on earlier models) with 4 newer and more fuel efficient engines of the sort used on 747s, 767s, etc. Even though it would save money in the long run, politicians don't care much about the long run.

How is it that, with about the same fraction of total GNP going to government, we can now afford only about 1/3 as much of the GNP going to the military than we did in 1962 ? See AFA Percentage of GDP table. The answer..DemoRat giveaway programs. Yes there is pork involved in the military budget, but at least we get planes, ships, or armor, and trained troops to operate them, out of the deal. What do we get for those other vote buying schemes? Incumbent protection is what they get, we get nada.

Defense has been sucking hind teat since the end of the Vietnam war, with only the Reagan years giving some real relief. Those B-1B mentioned above were Reagan era aquistions. Sinc then the only long range heavy bombers we've bough have been the 20 or so B-2s.