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.
The last real Sec of Defense this nation had was Cap. Until we get another like him and a POTUS like his boss who will stand up to congress for our troops needs it's not going to get better. Wimps on the Left. Wimp enablers on the right. That is our goverment of today.
Back in the late 80s, the military embraced the Total Quality Management (TQM) craze. The whole point of that is to do more with less. And, there are SOME situations where it is possible to do more with less. But sooner or later it gets overdone. Eventually you can just do less with less.
Thanks to the GWOT, the military is finding this out the hard way now. Getting rid of Rumsfeld was a good thing as he tried to fight the Iraq war with that mindset. Problem is a generation of officers (generals), bureaucrats, and lawmakers have been weaned on the TQM ideology. And liberal lawmakers love a smaller military because it frees up resources to spend on entitlements.
The AF got rid of a lot of airframes since 1990. Sometimes this was justified, sometimes it was done without thinking. Getting rid of the ABCCC, the Wild Weasels, etc was not a good idea. I remember when Gen Jumper was proposing consolidating the JSTARS and AWACS platforms into a single airframe to reduce crew requirements. Not sure what happened to it, but it was a dumb, impractical idea. If we are serious about fighting a GWOT (and I don’t believe we are—yet) we will have to ramp up the military again.
We have 2X the population we did in WWII—there is no reason we have can’t have a much larger, more robust force.
Several things would help. One is raising the End Troop Strengths to realistic levels of full time 24/7/365 readiness and reduce the reserve deployment dependence. Also at the top of the list is go back to the 3/3 or 4/2 enlistments instead of 8 year service obligations. That is ridiculous to have first time enlistees obligated that long. I can see where it would benefit career military but first one needs to be shorter. Bring back the full GI Bill. It saved my hide and put food on the table for my family during the 82 recession. I went back to school drawing pay to do so and did contract work for V.A. as well.
If you want straight answers as to the needs of the military go to the ones who know. E-6's and E-7's know what troops need in the field and what is needed on ships etc.
Congress is going to have to cut other programs and start replacing what they have allowed to be scuttled. Promises of replacement weapons systems somewhere down the road don't help matters now. Stop closing and selling bases. That too has hurt. If they aren't needed at the time at least keep the real-estate. Navy wise reopen Rosie Roads. Something tells me we'll need it sooner rather than later for Caribbean area staging and patrols. Return to a two carrier group 24/7/365 posture in the MED SEA Operations area. Find a more suitable place for a repair yard in the MED and close the one in UAE it is a disaster waiting to happen.
Under no circumstances should the conditions which happened with the USS COLE be allowed to happen again. Safety is in numbers not two days out from fleet. Refuel at sea. Stick with what works until something better is actually proven. The Navy thanks mostly to Cheney lost it's best carrier based fighter. The R&D funds should have went into Avionics upgrades and further orders for F-14's. We had the perfect mouse trap. One last one. Open a second carrier production capable shipyard preferably not in the Norfolk area. We are now depending way too much on facilities there for maintenance as well as building. Remember Pearl Harbor. These are good facilities but common sense says don't put every asset in one area.
Didn’t you think it was a good, encouraging speech?
I did not find it to be the least bit critical. And it is simply not possible to rationally conclude that Sec. Gates was implying that the Air Force wasn’t doing enough.
Incredibly misleading reporting.
Gates is part of the problem, not the solution. If you want to increase the number of USAF Predators in CENTCOM, you have to shut down the schoolhouse. Gates said don’t do that - and now says the USAF hasn’t done enough.
It isn’t physically possible to do what Gates wants - significantly increase the numbers without shutting down the schoolhouse.
And jumping in folks chili in public doesn’t make it better. It A) hurts morale, and B) makes Gates look like a pussy who can’t direct his own department. A & B are both bad.
I’m about to leave the USAF after 25 years, but I’m embarrassed by Gates. Of course, I also think we have a bunch of namby-pambies (sp?) running the USAF, but that is a different fight...
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.