As alert reader Beth pointed out in email, folks
over at the Castle are in high dudgeon over this piece in the NY Post.
Ralph Peters, with whom I have taken exception before (and who in return was
gracious enough not to be aware of my existence), takes the Air Force to task
for, well, pretty much everything. Especially for not being either the Army or
the Marine Corps.
"Morally
bankrupt, the Air Force is willing to turn a blind eye to the pressing needs of
soldiers and Marines at war in order to get more of its $300-million-apiece junk
fighters. With newer, far more costly aircraft than the Marines possess, the Air
Force pleads that it just can't defend our country without devouring the
nation's defense
budget.
Meanwhile, Marine
aviators fly combat missions in aging jets and ancient helicopters, doing their
best for America — and refusing to beg, lie, cheat or blame their
gear."
Now, "morally bankrupt" is a
pretty heavy accusation to hurl across service lines. Especially because Mr.
Peters knows, he has to know, that it's not the Air Force's business in the
acquisition world to throw money at the Army and Marine Corps. That's not how we
do it. At all.
Dirty little secret?
Since pretty much forever, the Navy (department of, including the USMC), Army
and USAF have pretty much split the DoD budget into three equal shares. And as a
sort of gentleman's agreement, they've pretty much determined not to go poking
holes in the other guy's budget balloons, since 1) That's a hole with no bottom,
and 2) The savings would revert to the Treasury in any case - in other words,
there's no winner, inside the Pentagon, when someone else loses. You might not
like to know that, but that's just the way it
is.
The USAF does a great job up on
Capitol Hill with lantern-jawed spokesmen and powerpoint slides. No one's better
- except the US Marine Corps, God bless 'em, and bring 'em home safe. The Navy
is made up of engineers at the senior level, and they pretty quickly bog down in
wiring diagrams and third order cost/benefit analyses, which all too often
leaves the congresscritters feeling a little off-put. But look: By the time
anyone gets to the point where he's briefing Congress, he's pushing the company
line, one that's been approved by the heaviest hitters in the service. These
guys tend to be pretty smart. So, if the service can get Congress to approve the
acquisition plan, it's pretty much end of story. Except of course, for the
innumerable marks (program cuts) and what-if drills from snot-nosed staffers
barely out of diapers. Which is why I never had a Pentagon tour, but
anyway.
Some idiot did apparently say
something indefensible, which sent Ralph off the deep end:
"The Air Force and Navy
can dominate their battle space. Why can't the Army and
Marines?"
Let me translate
that: At a time when soldiers and Marines are fighting and dying in Iraq,
Afghanistan and elsewhere, the Air Force shamefully implies that our ground
forces are incompetent, hinting that, if the Air Force ran the world, we'd get
better
results."
No
mistake that this was vile and stupid thing to say. But people say stupid things
all the time, usually without having a full-page op-ed screed written in reply.
I've had my own bone to pick with the USAF before - not saying they gold plate
things (they do) but when we're working older equipment and struggling to make
ends meet, you'll often hear a junior Air Force guy say, "well, you Navy people
have to buy and operate ships - those things are
expensive."
Like that would be our
fault. Like we had $30 billion burning a hole in our pocket, and blew it on
ships. In Vegas, maybe.
But
no.
Until someone decides to
re-jigger the whole even-share of the budget pie, it's all a great deal of noise
and heat, without the shedding of any light. And there's absolutely zero
interest in doing so. Because you know why? No one, I mean nobody, could have
predicted five years ago that we'd have 15,000 ground forces in Afghanistan
(where is that, exactly?) or 135,000 in Iraq. And like the Secretary said, the
consequence is that you go to war with the Army you have. We don't have a
crystal ball that tells us to sell Navy and buy Army. Just
don't.
Look - I'm no shill for the
USAF, but what they do, they do very, very well. They're the only air force I
wouldn't want to fight against, if it came right down to it. Their gear is
getting older, hence more expensive to operate, and less capable against the
emerging threat. And these days, with the developmental cycles of new generation
fighters, the changes are not evolutionary but revolutionary. It's much
different I think for the ground forces, who will always seek to "close with,
and destroy" the enemy, eventually leading to one side standing at rest over the
battlefield, holding rifles.
Soldiers are pretty much soldiers,
and rifles only evolve. You still have to point
them.
The production lines for both
the F-16 and F-15 are now closed. No spare parts are coming off of jets in
production, which raises their cost. Re-starting the lines would be hideously
expensive, and would only serve to replace the low-level attrition numbers from
aircraft crashes. It wouldn't raise the bar, which is what the USAF is clearly
interested in doing, both with the F-35 and FA-22. Because the surest way to
lose the next war is to prepare for the last
one.
The bottom line is that we won
the fluid part of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan with ground forces fully
supported by air power. The enemy couldn't talk, couldn't move and couldn't
stand still without getting his ass kicked by heavy ordnance, delivered
precisely. Stability and security operations in an urban environment are a lot
harder, and lend themselves much less readily to the fist from above. But when
the Army or Marine Corps calls for that fist, carrying a hammer, it'll be there
in a matter of minutes, bringing the heat, and bringing it
hard.
Ralph Peters needs to change
his meds, or up his
dosage.
-----------
Oh,
since you got all the way here, you might as well take a look at naval
power, up close.
Yeah,
baby. Ask the Air Force what they had going on, back in 1812.
Posted @
06:16 PM
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Posted in
""
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Sendit
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Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." - John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Ceasar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friederich Nietzsche
