How in HELL does something like this happen?
1. Mission takes priority over maintenance, security, training, and everything else.
2. Ships spare parts and maintenance funded at 65% of the requirement vice the 90% of requirements used to fund naval aviation spares and maintenance.
3. Do more with less continues to be a successful strategy for promotion PROVIDED you are not in command when the INSURV team arrives.
4. Yard periods cancelled and deferred to save funding and enable very short turnarounds between longer and longer deployments.
The United States continues to have the world’s finest military manned by the greatest Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen the world has ever known.
However, our acquisition and budgeting systems REFUSE to acknowledge the TRUE costs of the complex weapon systems we field. (You can take the published cost and multiply by 3 to get in the neighborhood of the initial acquisition cost, which will be well less than 40% of the total cost to operate and maintain after fielding).
EVERYTIME the military has attempted to measure the total cost of ownership, or true operating costs, with accurate metrics and a verifiable methodology the leadership has blanched and lost its nerve. Not because there were too many significant figures in the answer, but because there were too many commas.
I make no excuses for the Commanding Officers of the USS STOUT or USS CHOSIN, it s*cks to be them. But those who sit in judgement know full well that “there are those that have and those that will.”
The finest mentor I ever had in the Navy told me they “give you your first command and see how lucky you are!”
Looks to me like the Captain and his senior officers and enlisted were afraid of hurting the crew's feelings.
Familiarity breeds contempt. See it every day with the youngsters escaping from public high schools. Full of self-esteem without the basic wherewithals, expecting to start at the top without being able to spell or explain TANSTAAFL.
Cutting funding to the bone and not investing in people usually leads to physical deterioration in the fleet. Now we’re seeing it.
Because Iraq is sucking up every available dollar and maintenance budgets have been slashed. Same thing happened during Vietnam.
Original Message -——
From: Michael M. Dunn
To:
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 12:22 AM
Subject: Note from AFA President — A/C Restrictions and CSAF White Paper
January 16, 2008
AFA members and Congressional Staffers, many of you have commented favorably on the “elevator speech numbers” I sent you.
It’s January ... so here are some revealing data on the “State of the Air Force.”
Fighter Aircraft - average age: 20 years; average flight hours 5400+
Bomber Aircraft - average age: 32 years; average flight hours 11,400+
Tanker aircraft - average age: 44 years; average flight hours 18,900+
C2 Fleet - average age: 22 years old; average flight hours 32,000
ISR Fleet (excluding UAV) - average age: 30 years old; average flight hours 18,000
Key Groundings/Restrictions
F-15A-D - 163 of 441 are grounded for structural issues
B-52 - 6 are grounded - past due PDM grounding date - authorized a one-time flight to the bone-yard.
EC-130 - 2 of 14 are grounded due to center wing box cracks
C-130E - 3 are grounded and 13 are restricted due to Service life and wing cracks
KC-135Es - 26 of 86 are grounded due to engine strut corrosion.
AC-130U - 4 of 17 are restricted due to lack of 30MM weapons
B-2 - entire fleet is restricted due to windshield bolt hole cracks
C-5s - 39 of 108 are restricted due to crown skin restrictions (weight limiting)
Additionally:
219 of 223 F-15Es have training restrictions due to vertical stab structural issues
Majority of Block 25/30/32, block 40/42, and block 50/52 F-16s need structural modifications
All 356 A-10s will need new wings and new aircraft skin - many have landing gear issues ... and all need new engines.
C-130Hs have Center Wing Box issues
C-32As have bulkhead structural issues.
Looking across the FYDP - between 2008-2013 - the Air Force will divest itself of 749 aircraft and procure only 698 aircraft (260 of which are UAVs).
To give you the idea of the scale of all of this:
When the AF grounded its 600+ F-15 fleet, it grounded more aircraft than the entire F/A Navy. The F-15s it presently has grounded equate to a bit more than 3 aircraft carriers of aircraft.
The 356 A-10s that need renovations equates to more aircraft than the fixed wing USMC
The Air Force has about 5800 aircraft ... and presently about one-third are either grounded or restricted in one way or another
The central important part of this data is that this is not a third-world Air Force ... And the question we should ask ourselves, why don’t we fund it to ensure our children and grandchildren are safe and secure?
2nd Subject -
Chief of Staff White Paper - Gen Moseley published an exceptional White Paper ... which lays out the strategic foundations for the Air Force of the future. If you haven’t seen it, you can find it on the AFA website: http://dailyreport.afa.org/NR/rdonlyres/868196FC-AABB-4230-84EA-F5358B0C4B34/0/CSAF_white_paper.pdf
My favorite quotes in it are:
“No modern war has been won without air superiority. No future war will be won without air, space and cyberspace superiority.” Page 2.
“With the oldest inventory in history, battered by 17 years of continuous combat, the Air Force’s ability to fulfill its missions is already being tested.” Page 2
“... our reliance on assured access to space will increase exponentially.” Page 8
“The Air Force is smaller in December 2007 than it was in December 1941.” Page 10
For your consideration.
Mike
Michael M. Dunn, Lt Gen (Ret)
AFA President/CEO
Leaders of the past 20 years starting in 1989 with Poppy Bush and his corporate shill Dowsize It fer me Cheney, Congress's both parties, Clinton and congress again both parties especially the so called GOP majority who was there 6 of his 8 years, The Smirking Chimp CIC who is entirely clueless about military readiness and takes his advice solely from Downsize and neglect it fer me Cheney.
My uncle was Old Navy and C.O. of an LST in the late 60's. Me and him talked one day about the Kitty Hawk and Kennedy problems. He practically yelled "How can this happen the Navy won't allow you to fail". Words from a man who went from E-1 to Commander the hard way. Today after Reagan left office and had built the greatest military ever there has been no true pro-military POTUS nor congress. The Republicans and DEMs both should hold their sorry heads in shame for the neglect they have allowed. Three presidents allowed it. Poppy started it, Clinton continued it, and Junior followed Poppy and Cheney's advice. Add to the a do nothing congress and senate.
This brings us up to today. The worse choices for CIC since before WW2. Who suffers from our bad choices at election time especially in the primaries where Idiots should be weeded out? Our Military suffers. Thanks for nothing RNC and the Moderate/Liberals you push time after time.