Posted on 04/21/2008 10:55:00 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business."
Gates said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth."
Addressing officer students at the Air Force's Air University, the Pentagon chief praised the Air Force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to do more and to undertake new and creative ways of thinking about helping the war effort instead of focusing mainly on future threats.
"In my view we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt," he said. "My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield."
He cited the example of drone aircraft that can watch, hunt and sometimes kill insurgents without risking the life of a pilot. He said the number of such aircraft has grown 25-fold since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
He said he has been trying for months to get the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, like the Predator drone that provides real-time surveillance video, to the battlefield.
"Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it's been like pulling teeth," Gates said. "While we've doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough."
To push the issue harder, Gates said he established last week a Pentagon-wide task force "to work this problem in the weeks to come, to find more innovative and bold ways to help those whose lives are on the line."
He likened the urgency of the task force's work to that of a similar organization he created last year to push for faster production and deployment of mine-resistant, ambush-protected armored vehicles that have been credited with saving lives of troops facing attacks by roadside bombs in Iraq.
"All this may require rethinking long-standing service assumptions and priorities about which missions require certified pilots and which do not," Gates said, referring to so-called unmanned aerial vehicles that are controlled by servicemembers at ground stations.
The military's reliance on unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft has soared to more than 500,000 hours in the air, largely in Iraq, according to Pentagon data. The Air Force has taken pilots out of the air and shifted them to remote flying duty to meet part of the demand.
Gates, who served in the Air Force in the 1960s as a young officer before he joined the Central Intelligence Agency, urged the officers in his audience to dedicate themselves to thinking creatively.
"I'm asking you to be part of the solution and part of the future," he said.
Gates made no direct mention of a series of mistakes and missteps involving the Air Force in recent months, beginning with an episode last August when a B-52 bomber flew from an Air Force base in North Dakota to another in Louisiana with the crew unaware that it was carrying nuclear weapons.
Last month Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne announced that four Air Force nose cone assemblies designed for use with nuclear missiles were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan in 2006. The error was not verified until shortly before Wynne made the announcement, and the matter is under Pentagon investigation.
Why don’t they do the mission they’ve been assigned instead of dragging their tails?
Stupid bus drivers!
Regardless of turf and inspiration in choice of weapon platforms, it would had been better if Gates keeped it in the fold. Why let the general public have something further to stew upon regarding this administration’s prosecution of the GWOT. Then again, perhaps he got wind that the L/MSM had plans on making a big deal about it, and jumped in ahead of their plan, to thwart any criticism the DoD was not concerned over the issue.
If the Air force is not doing enough for the war effort is that not the fault of the Secretary of Defense? I mean is he in charge or not?
I just thought the AF was running out of targets.
OTOH...
UAVs Earning Their Keep In Sadr City Battles, al-Qaeda Still Taking A Beating
Strata Sphere | Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 4:25 pm. | AJStrata
Posted on 04/21/2008 4:35:28 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2004954/posts
Thanks Ernest.
Seems like a strange way to go about trying to win more cooperation fromm AF brass — they can easily wait out the next 9 months and see what the next admin. brings.
Not saying Gates may not be 110% correct about needing a lot more effort on UAVs, but I don’t see how blasting AF Generals in this way is going to win friends and influence people. Maybe though Gates has just run out of patience.....
buddy, you don't know the half of it. There are "strategic" assets and "tactical" assets that the Air Force has. Now if someone like .....hmmmmmm McPeak is in charge, well then you might have a "problem" with the Air Force not wanting to "lose" assets and possibly the control of those assets.
Might not want to even think of what it took to make a guy like Gates raise hell and embarrass the Air Force like that.
He essentially pulled their pants down and spanked them.
I've got nothing but praise for the Air Force in my limited dealing with them. They flew my dad home, took care of him in Wilford Hall and provided me with some of the most friendly nurses and hospital staff I've ever seen.
Even had a friend get me playing cards and knick knacks from Air Force One in a swap that involved a friendly inter-service rivalry.....and two nurses......
Now, on the other hand, the Marines I come across...any one of them could snap in half a handful of the Air Force guys with one hand.
Yeah, but the Air Force has two eyes and a couple of fingers that could turn a bunch of Marines into carbon.... we're all on the same team....
Most guys don't join the Air Force for the chance to do combat between 1 foot to 6 feet of altitude... on the other hand, most guys don't join the Marines for the educational benefits.
It's a pretty Darwinian process.
That's why I believe Hillary did try to join the Marines. .......
We needed a replacement for USMC Mascot "Chesty"
ROTFLMAO - wink, wink, nod, nod!
I know just what you mean - siting out in the boonies, humping a ruck for a couple of weeks just so you can talk on a radio and call in
CAS
AC130
Airdrops for more ammo and water
Snake-eyes
AC130s
Did I mention the ammo and water drops? - the Army guys I worked with really thought highly of that part, almost as much as the CAS when Gomer was in the wire. I noted nobody called me a (use your fav name here) the whole time - droll to say the least.
Not everyone in the Army is a gravel agitator
Not everyone in the USAF sits on thier ass in an air-conditioned bunker.
Some Marines actually fly things that drop bombs (their ground-side CAS guys are realy, really good)
and the Navy? Well, they’re the Navy.
Better sound than a C130? A Huey coming to pick you up and save the long walk home!
With that sample size I'm sure you are 100% correct.
It's just that simple isn't it. OK. What type? Who will maintain them? Where will they get their spare parts? Who will train them to fly them? Let's hear your plan, General.
You have to read the actual Gates speech, which I link below. This AP headline and the AP article are so far from the truth, I am surprised that the falsity of the article is not legally actionable. Gates actually gave a very good speech that was encouraging to the Air Force, and not critical AT ALL of this branch. I am amazed that a reporter could be so brazen in their efforts to misrepresent what was said. I hope an Air Force press department person calls the AP to complain... or something.
http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1231
Maybe he’s laying the groundwork for firing the SecAF or the USAF COS,
The Air Force has been in the process of constant change for decades, with a steady drumbeat of expeditionary air operations. Perhaps uniquely among the Services, the Air Force has been at war, more or less constantly, for 17 years, since the launch of Desert Storm. Since September 11th, the Air Force has flown nearly a million missions in the war on terror, with an average of 300 sorties per day ranging from lift to medevac to close air support.
**************************EXCERPT************************
In addition, we need to be thinking about how we accomplish the missions of the future – from strike to surveillance – in the most affordable and sensible way. We must heed John Boyd’s advice by asking if the ways we do business make sense. UAVs offer a case in point.
In the early 1990s, I was Director of CIA. After 27 years of experience as an intelligence professional, I had seen many agents place themselves in harm’s way to collect information in some of the world’s most dangerous and inaccessible environments. I had stood by flag-draped caskets at Andrews Air Force Base receiving those from CIA who had given their all serving the nation. The introduction of UAVs around this time meant far less risky and far more versatile means of gathering data, and other nations like Israel set about using them. In 1992, however, the Air Force would not co-fund with CIA a vehicle without a pilot.
Unmanned systems cost much less and offer greater loiter times than their manned counterparts, making them ideal for many of today’s tasks. Today, we now have more than 5,000 UAVs, a 25-fold increase since 2001. But in my view, we can do – and we should do – more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt.
My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield. I’ve been wrestling for months to get more intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets into the theatre. Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it’s been like pulling teeth. While we’ve doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough. And so last week I established a Department of Defense-wide task force much like the MRAP task force to work this problem in the weeks to come, to find more innovative and bold ways to help those whose lives are on the line. The deadlines for the task force’s work are very short.
All this may require rethinking long-standing service assumptions and priorities about which missions require certified pilots and which do not. For those missions that still require manned missions, we need to think hard about whether we have the right platforms.
Whether, for example, low-cost, low-tech alternatives exist to do basic reconnaissance and close air support in an environment where we have total command of the skies – aircraft that our partners can also afford and use.
Praise in public, criticize in private is great, to an extent. But if getting called out causes your panties to get in a bunch, you shouldn’t be serving in the military.
The Air Force has been in the process of constant change for decades, with a steady drumbeat of expeditionary air operations. Perhaps uniquely among the Services, the Air Force has been at war, more or less constantly, for 17 years, since the launch of Desert Storm. Since September 11th, the Air Force has flown nearly a million missions in the war on terror, with an average of 300 sorties per day ranging from lift to medevac to close air support.
Yea reckon so? Gee I do wonder why? Maybe because the Do Nothing GOP house and senate majority elected in 1994 sat on their Liberal tails till they lost it all perhaps and then the Do Nothing DEMs took it from there. Many like to blame Clinton for it all just like they love to blame Perot for Poppy Bush being a bad POTUS.
Well the down turns actually began under Poppy and Cheney. Clinton faced a GOP majority for 6 of his 8 years who did nothing to stop him. When G.W. LBJ the second Bush took over as POTUS he as well did absolutely nothing. You expect it of the DEMs but the GOP is the main reason we have a gutted military well below even the standards of the Carter years in strength.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.