I disagree. Landing on carriers requires a lot of trade-offs that result in a heavier, less capable aircraft. For example, the F14 has a much poorer thrust-to-weight ratio than the F15. The F18 has a very short range. For the Air Force to have used those same fighters as is would have resulted in a significantly compromised aircraft.
New Army head - looks like interesting times...
- Thread starter Preacherman
- Start date
- Status
Leatherneck
Member
1911: don't think for a minute the lessons of MacNamara's F-111B have been forgotten. The problem is more pervasive than that. The services are spending tons of money on systems that don't even recognize the existence of other, similar or related systems. There's little or no inter-service synergy as a result. The obvious symptoms of this are information systems that don't even communicate with each other. The root cause is lack of an overall archtecture, or vision for a future infrastructure. This is an ages-old problem, and Rumsfeld means to fix it. We'll see if he can overcome the powerful interests of the services and their pet congress critters.
TC
TFL Survivor
TC
TFL Survivor
Leatherneck: I'm sure you're right. UAVs seem to be an example of that, with each service developing multiple solutions and no apparent coordination.
I was just taking issue with amprecon's suggestion that the Air Force should have used the F14 and F18. Sometimes the services should share equipment. And sometimes they need dedicated equipment for their particular needs.
I was just taking issue with amprecon's suggestion that the Air Force should have used the F14 and F18. Sometimes the services should share equipment. And sometimes they need dedicated equipment for their particular needs.
Sergeant Bob
Member
Art: My gripe with stuff like the Herc is that while the design seems okay, good to go, the age of the airframes means we oughta build brand-new critters.
Good news Art. The Herky Bird is still in production (C130 J-30) and it just keeps getting better! Arguably the most versatile aircraft ever built. Imagine landing and taking off from an aircaft carrier in a plane that size, without arresting gear or catapult!
Lockheed Martin C130J
Sorry to get off topic but I spent 14 years in airlift and it doesn't take alot to excite me.
Good news Art. The Herky Bird is still in production (C130 J-30) and it just keeps getting better! Arguably the most versatile aircraft ever built. Imagine landing and taking off from an aircaft carrier in a plane that size, without arresting gear or catapult!
Lockheed Martin C130J
Sorry to get off topic but I spent 14 years in airlift and it doesn't take alot to excite me.
Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
Sergeant Bob, thanks for the update.
I guess my problem with some of Rumsfeld's ideas is that he seems one who believes that because he's got a high batting average for guessing correctly, he will ALWAYS be right. I'm more of a make-haste-slowly sort, I guess. I learned long ago to double-check my thinking before making important decisions.
Art
I guess my problem with some of Rumsfeld's ideas is that he seems one who believes that because he's got a high batting average for guessing correctly, he will ALWAYS be right. I'm more of a make-haste-slowly sort, I guess. I learned long ago to double-check my thinking before making important decisions.
Art
A profile of the new Secretary of the Army
Christian Science Monitor
May 20, 2003
The Man Chosen To Bridge Army-Pentagon Gap
He'll head the Army at a time of tense relations. His success depends on intellect and inner-circle connections.
By Ann Scott Tyson, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON – In the mid-1970s, when Donald Rumsfeld first served as defense secretary, a little-known group of iconoclastic military thinkers was toiling away in the obscure Office of Net Assessment on the Pentagon's A-ring.
One of those early mavericks, a Navy captain named James Roche, is emerging today as one of Rumsfeld's most favored and powerful agents for "transforming" America's military.
This month, the White House tapped Dr. Roche, who has served two years as Air Force secretary, to become the new secretary of the Army. Roche's expected nomination comes at a critical juncture for the 228-year-old service: The Army's senior leadership is in considerable upheaval, and relations between the Army and Rumsfeld appear tenser than ever. The Army, moreover, is experimenting with sweeping changes to its organization, weapons systems, and personnel structure.
Few doubt Roche's qualifications, say officials and analysts on both sides of the Rumsfeld-Army rift. A former Northrop Grumman Corp. executive with a Harvard Business School doctorate, Roche has shown a knack for successful corporate turnarounds. He has a broad range of defense experience - as a career Navy officer, congressional staffer, Pentagon analyst, and most recently Air Force secretary. Add to this a keen intellect, taste for sleek cars and exclusive clubs, and self-described "boundless ego," and Roche, according to those who know him, is a force to contend with.
Rock-bottom relations with Rumsfeld
Still, Roche's effectiveness in the job will depend at least as much on how he handles the bad blood between Rumsfeld and top Army brass as it does on his intellect and connections to the Pentagon's inner circle, say defense officials and analysts.
"Obviously, he [Roche] will have to reach out to the senior Army leadership and make the point that he is there to help the Army with its transformation," says Andrew Krepinevich, executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and a friend of Roche. "But again, a lot of it has to do with how the Army views him."
For their part, Army officials suggest that relations with the Rumsfeld team are at rock bottom and have nowhere to go but up. Especially troubling is what they view as Rumsfeld's clashes with former Army Secretary Thomas White, who departed abruptly May 9, and the Army chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki, who retires next month.
"When the Army sees its leaders regularly disrespected by the Secretary of Defense, you have to assume he has it in for you," says an Army official. "Look at how he fired [Secretary] White. ... That was just an ambush." The Pentagon announced White's resignation on April 25, but officials say privately Rumsfeld made it clear he wanted White out. White, a former cavalry officer, had lobbied to retain the Army's Crusader artillery system, which Rumsfeld canceled.
Rumsfeld denied that he's at war with the Army. "It's just not true," he recently told reporters at the Pentagon.
In February, however, the Rumsfeld team criticized as "wildly off the mark" General Shinseki's estimate that hundreds of thousands of US troops might be required to occupy postwar Iraq. So far, no replacement has been announced for the outgoing Army chief of staff. Two leading candidates, Gen. John Keane and Gen. Tommy Franks, have declined the post, defense officials say. Meanwhile, a large number of the three-star generals from Shinseki's staff are either retiring or changing jobs this summer.
"It looks like it will be a rocky transition," says an Army official, who requested anonymity.
Moves toward a more lethal Army
Still, Roche's tenure as Air Force secretary suggests that, while he clearly embraces Rumsfeld's vision of transformation and joint war fighting, he can prove a strong advocate for an individual service, analysts say.
"Everyone thought his relationship with the Air Force would be terrible, that the Air Force would be merged into the Navy - those were the jokes at his swearing-in ceremony," says aerospace and defense attorney James McAleese, who has worked with Roche.
Instead, Roche has aggressively promoted priority Air Force programs such as the F/A-22 fighter jet, despite cost overruns, and has backed a controversial plan to lease 100 refueling tankers from Boeing to supplement the stretched fleet.
Similarly, Roche would be expected to support ongoing initiatives aimed at building a more agile, more lethal Army. These include the creation of six new Stryker brigade combat teams, the first of which is now undergoing its final operational test, as well as the multibillion-dollar future combat systems, which is expected to be fielded beginning in 2012.
Less clear is where Roche would stand on other pressing questions, including the balance between light and heavy infantry within the Army's 10 active divisions, the recapitalization of existing systems such as the Abrams tanks that proved their worth in Iraq, and the retention and rotation of Army personnel.
"The tension Roche faces is to be able to articulate his shared vision with Rumsfeld, and at the same time understand the very basic lessons [from Iraq] ... that Army forces need a certain amount of armor and artillery," says Larry Wortzel, a retired Army colonel and director of the Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation here.
'Detail man' and Shakespeare fan
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1939 as what he calls a hospital "charity case," Roche earned a bachelor's degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1960, a master's degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1966, and a doctorate from Harvard Business School in 1972.
A 23-year Navy veteran, Roche commanded the USS Buchanan guided missile destroyer and was awarded the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy for the Navy's most improved combat unit in the Pacific in 1974. He retired as a Navy captain in 1983, and often playfully calls himself a "dumb sailor."
People who have worked with Roche describe him as a highly intelligent man with a quick wit and sometimes quirky managerial style. "He's a detail man as opposed to just a big thinker. ... [H]e seems more like an engineering geek than a military leader," says Chris MeCray, a defense analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York who spent time with Roche during the secretary's 17-year career at Northrop Grumman.
Roche required the Northrop senior managers to perform Shakespeare plays on weekend retreats that served as a kind of bonding exercise, Mr. McAleese says. He also took them on tours of Civil War battlefields to help them appreciate the timeless concerns of men in combat.
Roche in a nutshell
Career history: 23-year Navy veteran; Democratic staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee; senior executive at the Northrop Grumman Corp.; Secretary of the Air Force
Education: Bachelor's degree from Illinois Institute of Technology; master's from the US Naval Postgraduate School; doctorate from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration
Hobbies: Cars, jazz, and military history
Self-described: As having a "boundless ego" and, playfully, as a "dumb sailor"
Christian Science Monitor
May 20, 2003
The Man Chosen To Bridge Army-Pentagon Gap
He'll head the Army at a time of tense relations. His success depends on intellect and inner-circle connections.
By Ann Scott Tyson, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON – In the mid-1970s, when Donald Rumsfeld first served as defense secretary, a little-known group of iconoclastic military thinkers was toiling away in the obscure Office of Net Assessment on the Pentagon's A-ring.
One of those early mavericks, a Navy captain named James Roche, is emerging today as one of Rumsfeld's most favored and powerful agents for "transforming" America's military.
This month, the White House tapped Dr. Roche, who has served two years as Air Force secretary, to become the new secretary of the Army. Roche's expected nomination comes at a critical juncture for the 228-year-old service: The Army's senior leadership is in considerable upheaval, and relations between the Army and Rumsfeld appear tenser than ever. The Army, moreover, is experimenting with sweeping changes to its organization, weapons systems, and personnel structure.
Few doubt Roche's qualifications, say officials and analysts on both sides of the Rumsfeld-Army rift. A former Northrop Grumman Corp. executive with a Harvard Business School doctorate, Roche has shown a knack for successful corporate turnarounds. He has a broad range of defense experience - as a career Navy officer, congressional staffer, Pentagon analyst, and most recently Air Force secretary. Add to this a keen intellect, taste for sleek cars and exclusive clubs, and self-described "boundless ego," and Roche, according to those who know him, is a force to contend with.
Rock-bottom relations with Rumsfeld
Still, Roche's effectiveness in the job will depend at least as much on how he handles the bad blood between Rumsfeld and top Army brass as it does on his intellect and connections to the Pentagon's inner circle, say defense officials and analysts.
"Obviously, he [Roche] will have to reach out to the senior Army leadership and make the point that he is there to help the Army with its transformation," says Andrew Krepinevich, executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and a friend of Roche. "But again, a lot of it has to do with how the Army views him."
For their part, Army officials suggest that relations with the Rumsfeld team are at rock bottom and have nowhere to go but up. Especially troubling is what they view as Rumsfeld's clashes with former Army Secretary Thomas White, who departed abruptly May 9, and the Army chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki, who retires next month.
"When the Army sees its leaders regularly disrespected by the Secretary of Defense, you have to assume he has it in for you," says an Army official. "Look at how he fired [Secretary] White. ... That was just an ambush." The Pentagon announced White's resignation on April 25, but officials say privately Rumsfeld made it clear he wanted White out. White, a former cavalry officer, had lobbied to retain the Army's Crusader artillery system, which Rumsfeld canceled.
Rumsfeld denied that he's at war with the Army. "It's just not true," he recently told reporters at the Pentagon.
In February, however, the Rumsfeld team criticized as "wildly off the mark" General Shinseki's estimate that hundreds of thousands of US troops might be required to occupy postwar Iraq. So far, no replacement has been announced for the outgoing Army chief of staff. Two leading candidates, Gen. John Keane and Gen. Tommy Franks, have declined the post, defense officials say. Meanwhile, a large number of the three-star generals from Shinseki's staff are either retiring or changing jobs this summer.
"It looks like it will be a rocky transition," says an Army official, who requested anonymity.
Moves toward a more lethal Army
Still, Roche's tenure as Air Force secretary suggests that, while he clearly embraces Rumsfeld's vision of transformation and joint war fighting, he can prove a strong advocate for an individual service, analysts say.
"Everyone thought his relationship with the Air Force would be terrible, that the Air Force would be merged into the Navy - those were the jokes at his swearing-in ceremony," says aerospace and defense attorney James McAleese, who has worked with Roche.
Instead, Roche has aggressively promoted priority Air Force programs such as the F/A-22 fighter jet, despite cost overruns, and has backed a controversial plan to lease 100 refueling tankers from Boeing to supplement the stretched fleet.
Similarly, Roche would be expected to support ongoing initiatives aimed at building a more agile, more lethal Army. These include the creation of six new Stryker brigade combat teams, the first of which is now undergoing its final operational test, as well as the multibillion-dollar future combat systems, which is expected to be fielded beginning in 2012.
Less clear is where Roche would stand on other pressing questions, including the balance between light and heavy infantry within the Army's 10 active divisions, the recapitalization of existing systems such as the Abrams tanks that proved their worth in Iraq, and the retention and rotation of Army personnel.
"The tension Roche faces is to be able to articulate his shared vision with Rumsfeld, and at the same time understand the very basic lessons [from Iraq] ... that Army forces need a certain amount of armor and artillery," says Larry Wortzel, a retired Army colonel and director of the Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation here.
'Detail man' and Shakespeare fan
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1939 as what he calls a hospital "charity case," Roche earned a bachelor's degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1960, a master's degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1966, and a doctorate from Harvard Business School in 1972.
A 23-year Navy veteran, Roche commanded the USS Buchanan guided missile destroyer and was awarded the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy for the Navy's most improved combat unit in the Pacific in 1974. He retired as a Navy captain in 1983, and often playfully calls himself a "dumb sailor."
People who have worked with Roche describe him as a highly intelligent man with a quick wit and sometimes quirky managerial style. "He's a detail man as opposed to just a big thinker. ... [H]e seems more like an engineering geek than a military leader," says Chris MeCray, a defense analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York who spent time with Roche during the secretary's 17-year career at Northrop Grumman.
Roche required the Northrop senior managers to perform Shakespeare plays on weekend retreats that served as a kind of bonding exercise, Mr. McAleese says. He also took them on tours of Civil War battlefields to help them appreciate the timeless concerns of men in combat.
Roche in a nutshell
Career history: 23-year Navy veteran; Democratic staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee; senior executive at the Northrop Grumman Corp.; Secretary of the Air Force
Education: Bachelor's degree from Illinois Institute of Technology; master's from the US Naval Postgraduate School; doctorate from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration
Hobbies: Cars, jazz, and military history
Self-described: As having a "boundless ego" and, playfully, as a "dumb sailor"
Even if you get rid of the Army Brass, you have to deal with Congress
Defense News
May 19, 2003
Pg. 10
US House Reassesses Pentagon Priorities
By William Matthews
Victory in Iraq convinced the U.S. Defense Department it was safe to push harder for military transformation. But lawmakers in Congress say the war inspired in them new respect for some old weapons.
Thus the House Armed Services Committee decided that:
*The Army should get $600 million that it didn’t request for upgrades to M1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.
*The Air Force should get $20 million it didn’t seek to continue flying 23 B-1 bombers that it doesn’t want.
*The Navy should receive an additional $376 million to increase Tomahawk missile production.
The war emphasized the importance of heavy armor and deep strike, said Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, as his committee marked up the 2004 Defense Authorization Act May 13 and 14.
Those were not among the top priorities in the Defense Department’s version of the 2004 spending plan, nor are they reflected in the version that emerged from a closed-door markup by the Senate May 8. Differences will have to be worked out in a conference.
To help fund favored programs, the House committee voted to cut $2 billion of the $28 billion the Pentagon planned to spend on information technology in 2004. The Senate made no similar cut.
These and other changes would shift billions of dollars in the Pentagon’s $379.9 billion spending request. Hunter said the House committee is "striking a more careful balance" between "today’s critical combat capabilities" and "tomorrow’s innovative technologies."
Said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., "the Pentagon still got 99 percent of what they wanted."
Armored Impressions
House committee members clearly were impressed with the performance of M1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles in the Iraq conflict. And they were bluntly skeptical of the Army’s next-generation battlefield vehicle, the relatively lightweight Stryker personnel carrier.
Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., urged committee members to withhold $300 million of the $955 million the Army wants for the Stryker program in 2004. Saxton complained that the Stryker, though lightweight, is not light enough to be as deployable as the Army contends. And though armored, it may not be armored heavily enough to defeat even modestly armed foes, he said.
The Army favors Strykers because their lighter weight makes them easier to pack and transport. They’re at the center of the Army’s goal to become a lighter, more nimble, yet lethal force. Brigades composed of 366 Stryker vehicles and about 5,000 troops are supposed to be deployable anywhere in the world in 96 hours.
But Saxton and other lawmakers are dubious. They worry Stryker’s relatively light armor and rubber tires make it vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenades and even small arms. Saxton recalled that during the Iraq war, Marines in Stryker-like light armored vehicles "got pinned down" by Iraqi fedayeen fighters firing rifles and grenades from inside buildings.
The Light Armored Vehicles were stuck until M1 tanks "came swinging in," Saxton said. Soon, tank rounds "started taking down the walls of the buildings, and in a few minutes [the Iraqis] came out with their hands up."
The Iraq experience prompted Hunter to wonder if Stryker brigades might need to be augmented with attack helicopters or even tanks, but that would make them less deployable, he said.
Deployability already is a problem for Strykers, said Saxton.
The Stryker was designed to fit inside a C-130 cargo plane, but is so heavy the plane can’t get off the ground in certain atmospheric conditions, he said. To fly, the C-130 sometimes must unload fuel, cutting the distance it can carry a Stryker to as little as 50 or 60 miles.
The Army promised 1,000 miles when the Stryker was being designed, Saxton said. The Army also is having trouble developing an adequate gun for the Stryker, he said.
Saxton wanted $300 million withheld from the Stryker program until the Army and the Pentagon solve the vehicle’s weight and vulnerability problems. But Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., proposed withholding the $300 million, but only as long as it does not disrupt Stryker production or fielding of the Army’s fourth Stryker brigade. McHugh’s amendment also ensures the $300 million cannot be spent on anything other than Strykers. It passed 38-19.
The Senate supported the full $955 million for Stryker.
Bombers Up, F/A-22 Down
In another major spending adjustment, the House committee voted to keep a fleet of 83 B-1B bombers flying. B-1s, which entered service in 1985, were designed at the height of the Cold War to drop nuclear bombs on targets in the Soviet Union. They have been modified to drop conventional bombs and precision weapons. Air Force plans call for cutting the B-1 fleet from 93 to 60 to save money.
Bombing with precision munitions proved invaluable in the Iraq war and the war against terrorism in Afghanistan, and convinced the Armed Services Committee that "we need to bolster deep strike," Hunter said.
In addition to rescuing 23 planes from mothballs, the House committee voted to spend an extra $100 million on research and development of a next-generation stealth bomber to follow the B-2, and approved spending $19 million to upgrade precision munition targeting systems on B-52s.
The Senate included no comparable provisions.
While busy bolstering bombers, the House committee clipped the Air Force’s top fighter, and the Senate took an even bigger whack.
The House committee cut one plane and $161 million from the F/A-22 fighter program, then voted to withhold $136 million more until avionics software reliability problems are solved. The Senate opted to kill two planes, reducing the 2004 buy to 20.
Weldon, who chairs the House subcommittee on tactical air and land forces, made clear his colleagues’ unhappiness with F/A-22 troubles. Lawmakers looked closely at the fighter program, and "what we saw, we weren’t pleased with," he said. "Most of us support the F-22. … But most of us have problems with the performance of the Air Force and the contractor," Lockheed Martin Corp.
There have been development difficulties, testing troubles and production delays, he said. The current cause for discontent: The avionics software that runs the advanced fighter "is running at 15 percent of the standard set by the Air Force and the contractor," Weldon said.
Weldon and his subcommittee decided to "restrict obligation of $136 million" until the software problems are solved.
The $161 million cut came after Lockheed announced it had improved production efficiency enough to add an extra plane to the Air Force’s buy of 21 without increasing the cost. Weldon said his subcommittee decided it was wiser to take the savings — $161 million — rather than the plane.
Defense News
May 19, 2003
Pg. 10
US House Reassesses Pentagon Priorities
By William Matthews
Victory in Iraq convinced the U.S. Defense Department it was safe to push harder for military transformation. But lawmakers in Congress say the war inspired in them new respect for some old weapons.
Thus the House Armed Services Committee decided that:
*The Army should get $600 million that it didn’t request for upgrades to M1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.
*The Air Force should get $20 million it didn’t seek to continue flying 23 B-1 bombers that it doesn’t want.
*The Navy should receive an additional $376 million to increase Tomahawk missile production.
The war emphasized the importance of heavy armor and deep strike, said Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, as his committee marked up the 2004 Defense Authorization Act May 13 and 14.
Those were not among the top priorities in the Defense Department’s version of the 2004 spending plan, nor are they reflected in the version that emerged from a closed-door markup by the Senate May 8. Differences will have to be worked out in a conference.
To help fund favored programs, the House committee voted to cut $2 billion of the $28 billion the Pentagon planned to spend on information technology in 2004. The Senate made no similar cut.
These and other changes would shift billions of dollars in the Pentagon’s $379.9 billion spending request. Hunter said the House committee is "striking a more careful balance" between "today’s critical combat capabilities" and "tomorrow’s innovative technologies."
Said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., "the Pentagon still got 99 percent of what they wanted."
Armored Impressions
House committee members clearly were impressed with the performance of M1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles in the Iraq conflict. And they were bluntly skeptical of the Army’s next-generation battlefield vehicle, the relatively lightweight Stryker personnel carrier.
Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., urged committee members to withhold $300 million of the $955 million the Army wants for the Stryker program in 2004. Saxton complained that the Stryker, though lightweight, is not light enough to be as deployable as the Army contends. And though armored, it may not be armored heavily enough to defeat even modestly armed foes, he said.
The Army favors Strykers because their lighter weight makes them easier to pack and transport. They’re at the center of the Army’s goal to become a lighter, more nimble, yet lethal force. Brigades composed of 366 Stryker vehicles and about 5,000 troops are supposed to be deployable anywhere in the world in 96 hours.
But Saxton and other lawmakers are dubious. They worry Stryker’s relatively light armor and rubber tires make it vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenades and even small arms. Saxton recalled that during the Iraq war, Marines in Stryker-like light armored vehicles "got pinned down" by Iraqi fedayeen fighters firing rifles and grenades from inside buildings.
The Light Armored Vehicles were stuck until M1 tanks "came swinging in," Saxton said. Soon, tank rounds "started taking down the walls of the buildings, and in a few minutes [the Iraqis] came out with their hands up."
The Iraq experience prompted Hunter to wonder if Stryker brigades might need to be augmented with attack helicopters or even tanks, but that would make them less deployable, he said.
Deployability already is a problem for Strykers, said Saxton.
The Stryker was designed to fit inside a C-130 cargo plane, but is so heavy the plane can’t get off the ground in certain atmospheric conditions, he said. To fly, the C-130 sometimes must unload fuel, cutting the distance it can carry a Stryker to as little as 50 or 60 miles.
The Army promised 1,000 miles when the Stryker was being designed, Saxton said. The Army also is having trouble developing an adequate gun for the Stryker, he said.
Saxton wanted $300 million withheld from the Stryker program until the Army and the Pentagon solve the vehicle’s weight and vulnerability problems. But Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., proposed withholding the $300 million, but only as long as it does not disrupt Stryker production or fielding of the Army’s fourth Stryker brigade. McHugh’s amendment also ensures the $300 million cannot be spent on anything other than Strykers. It passed 38-19.
The Senate supported the full $955 million for Stryker.
Bombers Up, F/A-22 Down
In another major spending adjustment, the House committee voted to keep a fleet of 83 B-1B bombers flying. B-1s, which entered service in 1985, were designed at the height of the Cold War to drop nuclear bombs on targets in the Soviet Union. They have been modified to drop conventional bombs and precision weapons. Air Force plans call for cutting the B-1 fleet from 93 to 60 to save money.
Bombing with precision munitions proved invaluable in the Iraq war and the war against terrorism in Afghanistan, and convinced the Armed Services Committee that "we need to bolster deep strike," Hunter said.
In addition to rescuing 23 planes from mothballs, the House committee voted to spend an extra $100 million on research and development of a next-generation stealth bomber to follow the B-2, and approved spending $19 million to upgrade precision munition targeting systems on B-52s.
The Senate included no comparable provisions.
While busy bolstering bombers, the House committee clipped the Air Force’s top fighter, and the Senate took an even bigger whack.
The House committee cut one plane and $161 million from the F/A-22 fighter program, then voted to withhold $136 million more until avionics software reliability problems are solved. The Senate opted to kill two planes, reducing the 2004 buy to 20.
Weldon, who chairs the House subcommittee on tactical air and land forces, made clear his colleagues’ unhappiness with F/A-22 troubles. Lawmakers looked closely at the fighter program, and "what we saw, we weren’t pleased with," he said. "Most of us support the F-22. … But most of us have problems with the performance of the Air Force and the contractor," Lockheed Martin Corp.
There have been development difficulties, testing troubles and production delays, he said. The current cause for discontent: The avionics software that runs the advanced fighter "is running at 15 percent of the standard set by the Air Force and the contractor," Weldon said.
Weldon and his subcommittee decided to "restrict obligation of $136 million" until the software problems are solved.
The $161 million cut came after Lockheed announced it had improved production efficiency enough to add an extra plane to the Air Force’s buy of 21 without increasing the cost. Weldon said his subcommittee decided it was wiser to take the savings — $161 million — rather than the plane.
Hmmm....there must be a 2LT in OBC somewhere who wants the job....
Shinseki successor may come from unexpected ranks
By Sean D. Naylor
Times staff writer
Anyone who’s put money on a long shot to be the next Army chief of staff might just make a bundle.
The sure money to replace Gen. Eric Shinseki, who retires June 11, was on Gen. John Keane, the Army vice chief of staff and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s preferred option. When Keane declined the post, citing his wife’s health problems, Rumsfeld turned to Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks. But Franks, who presided over victorious campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, also opted to retire.
That prompted Rumsfeld to take an unusual step: He asked Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to draw up a list of active-duty two- and three-star generals who might be considered for the two slots, as well as a list of retired four-stars who might be brought back on active duty.
One pair of three stars whom Pentagon insiders say has a good shot at taking the helm of Army leadership are Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, as the next Army chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. Richard Cody, the Army’s deputy chief of staff, G-3, as his vice chief.
A retired Army senior leader who knows both generals said he was “90 percent certain†that Abizaid would be the next chief. The only reason he was not 100 percent sure, the retired senior leader said, was because “the SecDef can change his mind overnight.â€
If Rumsfeld were to elevate a three-star general to the chief’s position, it would be an indicator of his dissatisfaction with the top level of Army leadership, as well as the reluctance of some senior officers to take the job.
“It’s not like there were people faxing their resumes in,†said the Pentagon source.
Rumsfeld’s chilly relationship with Shinseki has been an open Washington secret for more than a year. Rumsfeld also quarreled with Army Secretary Thomas White, leading the defense secretary to replace White with Air Force Secretary James Roche.
If no one is tapped for the chief’s job by the time Shinseki retires, it’s possible that Keane would stay on as acting chief until the post is filled.
However, Rumsfeld is believed to be trying to persuade Keane to reconsider his decision to retire and stay on to run the Army. Keane could not be reached for comment.
Shinseki successor may come from unexpected ranks
By Sean D. Naylor
Times staff writer
Anyone who’s put money on a long shot to be the next Army chief of staff might just make a bundle.
The sure money to replace Gen. Eric Shinseki, who retires June 11, was on Gen. John Keane, the Army vice chief of staff and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s preferred option. When Keane declined the post, citing his wife’s health problems, Rumsfeld turned to Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks. But Franks, who presided over victorious campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, also opted to retire.
That prompted Rumsfeld to take an unusual step: He asked Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to draw up a list of active-duty two- and three-star generals who might be considered for the two slots, as well as a list of retired four-stars who might be brought back on active duty.
One pair of three stars whom Pentagon insiders say has a good shot at taking the helm of Army leadership are Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, as the next Army chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. Richard Cody, the Army’s deputy chief of staff, G-3, as his vice chief.
A retired Army senior leader who knows both generals said he was “90 percent certain†that Abizaid would be the next chief. The only reason he was not 100 percent sure, the retired senior leader said, was because “the SecDef can change his mind overnight.â€
If Rumsfeld were to elevate a three-star general to the chief’s position, it would be an indicator of his dissatisfaction with the top level of Army leadership, as well as the reluctance of some senior officers to take the job.
“It’s not like there were people faxing their resumes in,†said the Pentagon source.
Rumsfeld’s chilly relationship with Shinseki has been an open Washington secret for more than a year. Rumsfeld also quarreled with Army Secretary Thomas White, leading the defense secretary to replace White with Air Force Secretary James Roche.
If no one is tapped for the chief’s job by the time Shinseki retires, it’s possible that Keane would stay on as acting chief until the post is filled.
However, Rumsfeld is believed to be trying to persuade Keane to reconsider his decision to retire and stay on to run the Army. Keane could not be reached for comment.
Waitone
Member
IIRC ongoing combat trials of the Stryker are demonstrating impressive performance IN MOBILE WARFARE scenarios. Seems the mobility is what makes them hard to defeat. My only problem is the future battlefield is more than likely to be urban where the advantages of mobile warfare do not exist.
Wool suits make the decisions by which the grunt bleeds and dies. I fully understand the Army's reluctance to jump on the bandwagon. If there is a failure a lot of soldiers will die and those responsible for those decisions will take their pension.
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