[Senate Hearing 108-676]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2004
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 10:15 a.m., in room SD-192, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Ted Stevens (chairman) presiding.
Present: Senators Stevens, Cochran, Inouye, Leahy, Dorgan,
and Durbin.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Air Force
STATEMENTS OF:
HON. JAMES G. ROCHE, SECRETARY
GENERAL JOHN P. JUMPER, CHIEF OF STAFF
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR TED STEVENS
Senator Stevens. I apologize, Mr. Secretary and General. I
was Chair of the Senate, and my relief did not show up. But
we're happy to have you here this morning. It's an important
time for all of us, very important hearing concerning the
future of the Air Force.
As you know, some of us just returned from a trip to Iraq
and Afghanistan, and I know you're confronted with the
difficult task of modernizing the Air Force. We're pleased to
have your leadership.
I'll put my statement completely in the record because I am
late.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Ted Stevens
Secretary Roche, General Jumper, it is good to welcome you
back before the subcommittee at this time of importance for the
nation and the Air Force. As we meet here today, the Air Force
continues to support the nation's forces committed to
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time you are
both confronted with the difficult task of modernizing the Air
Force. The country is fortunate to be able to call upon your
leadership.
The committee has begun its review of the fiscal year 2005
Defense budget. Clear from the President's request is the Air
Force effort to modernize fighters by investing in the F/A-22
and the Joint Strike Fighter, and to commit the Department to
the next generation of space capability.
We look forward to hearing today of your priorities in the
budget request.
We will make your full statements a part of the committee's
record.
Before you proceed, I would like to ask my colleague from
Hawaii if he has any opening remarks.
Senator Stevens. All of your statements are completely in
the record, by the way.
Senator Inouye, our co-chairman, do you have a statement?
STATEMENT OF SENATOR DANIEL K. INOUYE
Senator Inouye. Yes, I did want to put the rest of my
statement in the record. Mr. Chairman, I wish to begin by
congratulating the Secretary and the General for the
performance of the men and women in the Air Force in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and other places around the world. And I'd like to
thank all of you and your command, because we are in your debt.
Thank you very much for your service.
And may I ask that the rest of the statement be made part
of the record?
Senator Stevens. Yes, sir.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Daniel K. Inouye
Secretary Roche, General Jumper thank you for being here
today to testify before this subcommittee on your fiscal year
2005 budget request.
Gentlemen, I want to begin by congratulating you on the
performance of the men and women in the Air Force in Iraq,
Afghanistan and around the world.
The last few years have been very demanding on our military
with frequent family separations from overseas deployments,
periods of intense combat which heighten concern for our loved
ones, and the stress that comes from knowing that we are living
in a very dangerous era.
Particularly at times like these, it is critical that we
demonstrate our support and express our thanks to these fine
officers and airmen, and their families.
I look forward to hearing from you today about how the
fiscal year 2005 budget request will accomplish this task.
Mr. Chairman, I want to note also that there are several
important issues in this budget request. The Air Force is
recommending changes in its aviation force structure, with the
retirement of ten F-117s. Furthermore, many other adjustments
are being contemplated.
For instance, I am told you are considering buying
additional F-15 and F-16 fighters, retiring C-5as, and
restoring B-1 bombers back to the fleet.
Some of these might prove controversial, and I encourage
you to include us in the decision making process as you
proceed.
Gentlemen, the proposed budget includes an increase of over
$4 billion in your investment accounts, while the other
services did not fare as well. I understand that some of your
increase is due to classified activities, but I would like you
to address the unclassified increases for space and other
programs today and why they are priorities at this juncture.
I look forward to hearing your remarks today on these and
other topics as we review the state of the Air Force.
Finally, Mr. Secretary, General Jumper I want to thank each
of you for your service to the Air Force and the country. We
are in your debt.
Senator Stevens. Senator Dorgan, do you have a statement?
Senator Dorgan. Mr. Chairman, I do intend to ask some
questions today about a number of things, but let me, again,
echo your comments and the comments of Senator Inouye. I
appreciate the work that the Secretary does, and General
Jumper's, and the men and women of the Air Force.
Senator Stevens. Thank you, sir.
I have a statement from Senator Burns for the record.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Conrad Burns
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank Secretary
Roche and General Jumper for coming to brief this Committee on
the Air Force budget, and I thank you for your service to our
great Nation. Your airmen are critical to winning this global
war on terror. I intend to honor our men and women serving and
those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country by
ensuring that our forces have the resources they need. With
16,000 airmen deployed to 25 locations in southwest Asia,
including 12 new bases, our Air Force is fully committed to
support the Global War on Terror.
Members of the 120th Fighter wing of the Montana Air
National Guard were one of many Air Guard units mobilized and
deployed to Saudi Arabia last year in support of the war. As
part of the Air and Space Expeditionary Forces (AEF), they have
performed superbly. I urge you to ensure the Air National Guard
units called to active duty have the most current equipment
available. We must depart from the cold war premise that equips
the Air Guard with older generation equipment transitioned from
Active Duty Air Force units. Today, our Air Force Guard and
Reserve components fight beside their active counterparts. I
urge you to ensure that all units deployed overseas are
equipped with the best technology our country can provide.
We have witnessed the successful employment of unmanned
aircraft within our forces. We have seen an increase in the
number of Unmanned Air Vehicles in use by our forces at all
echelons. Feedback I have seen from the soldiers on the ground
is that they wish they had more of these systems, not less. I
urge the Air Force to consider expanding the force structure of
unmanned aircraft into the Air National Guard. The Air Force
would benefit from retention of a strategic reserve of this
capability as operational tempo subsides in the coming years,
and the Air National Guard would benefit from force structure
that could support homeland security or disaster relief
missions. I will be interested to hear whether or not you have
plans for achieving this balance between the active Air Force
and Air National Guard.
I am encouraged by Air Force investments in advanced
technology that enables us to maintain superiority in sensor
coverage and the ability to provide rapid, precise application
of force. This investment is critical to our continued success
in operations under our new operational model, which relies on
precision engagement weapons and rapid identification of
targets to augment traditional firepower and maneuver
formations. I would hope that the Air Force continues its
investment in the development of cutting edge, creative
applications for the warfighter of today and the future.
The key to future combat is knowledge provided by rapid
processing of data from pervasive sensors, empowered with quick
response precision engagement capability. Air Force programs
like satellite communications and space based radar support the
growth in bandwidth required of our combat network resulting
from integration of high resolution multi-spectral sensors,
precision weapons, and maneuver formations.
I read daily of our forces in the field using American
ingenuity to develop unconventional solutions to solve the many
unconventional problems they face. I appreciate your efforts as
the leaders of the Air Force to seek innovation in technology,
acquisition processes, and doctrine to meet the challenges of
the evolving battlefield.
Again, I thank you for being here today and look forward to
the discussion this morning. Thank you.
Senator Stevens. Senator Cochran.
Senator Cochran. Mr. Chairman, I join you in welcoming the
distinguished Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force,
and commend them on the outstanding leadership they're
providing to the Air Force at this very important time.
Thank you.
Senator Stevens. Maybe I should be late every morning, Mr.
Secretary.
We'd get to you quicker this way.
I thank the Senators for their courtesy, and we'd be
pleased to hear your statement.
Dr. Roche. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We very much appreciate
the comments you made about our wonderful airmen. They really
are spectacular young men and women, and we're terribly proud
of them.
So, Mr. Chairman, Senator Inouye, and members of the
committee, it is our great pleasure to appear before this
distinguished committee and to represent the 700,000 Active,
Guard, Reserve, and civilian airmen who are engaged in
defending our Nation. General John Jumper and I are extremely
proud of their achievements and service this past year and the
years before that. They have contributed significantly to our
Nation's global fight against terrorism, to our military
successes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to our homeland defense
mission. They are devoted servants to our Nation, and have our
utmost respect and confidence.
And, sir, I would also want to point out how honored I am
to serve alongside such an outstanding leader as General John
Jumper, a wonderful officer, a superb gentleman, a renaissance
man, and a good friend.
Our highest priority continues to be warfighting through
delivering capabilities that enable us to remain decisive in
combat. Through the efforts of this committee, your colleagues
in the Congress, and the dedicated professionals of the
Department, we are proud to report we are meeting these
objectives.
As highlighted in our written testimony, we continue
adapting the Air Force to realize the President's and Secretary
Rumsfeld's view of transformation. Our strategy is to exploit
the sources of strength that give us the military advantages we
enjoy today. Our goal is to build a portfolio of advantages,
one that uses operational concepts to guide investments that's
relevant to the joint character of warfare and is useful in the
increasingly asymmetric conduct of warfare. With the support of
this committee, we have delivered combat effects never before
imaginable on the battlefield, and we'll sustain this dominance
in the future. The portfolio of capabilities, which I will be
speaking of, will continue to provide joint force air and space
dominance, enable battlefield operations, and produce decisive
joint-combat effects.
F/A-22
Let me start with the F/A-22, Mr. Chairman. Today, the F/A-
22 is not just a program on a piece of paper, but a real
aircraft, a revolutionary aircraft that is moving to the field
now. Ten jets assigned to Edwards Air Force Base, California,
are completing developmental tests, and they're well into
operational tests. At Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, five
Raptors are developing operational tactics and techniques. And
at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, four jets, and counting,
are training pilots.
I recently visited our airmen at Tyndall--I've been to all
of the facilities, but most recently at Tyndall Air Force
Base--and heard firsthand the glowing reports of this
transformational weapons system, from the airmen who maintain
it and operate it. In fact, as I departed, two Raptors were
taxiing back from another successful mission. Later, I was told
that both aircraft landed Code 1, which means they'd be ready
to go for its next mission after routine servicing.
With these aircraft in the inventory, we are now focusing
on operational testing, expanding the flight envelope,
integrating more weapons, and improving our maintenance
processes. One year ago, we had completed 16 missile shots.
Today, after 5,000 flight test hours, we've had 47 successful
missile shots, and major elements, flight envelope and weapons
envelope, are cleared for Initial Operational Test and
Evaluation (IOT&E) start. In fact, as General Jumper will tell
you, pilots flying the aircraft today believe that if war were
to break out, they would like to take the aircraft to war
today.
Additionally, through your commitment, stable production of
the F/A-22 program is producing cost savings. Earlier this
year, we exercised an option to add one F/A-22 aircraft to our
LOT-3 contract, increasing our buy to 21 planes for the price
of 20. While such dramatic savings won't be available every
year, this is happening because of gains in supplier
confidence, which led to reduced costs. With 65 percent of
aircraft costs associated with over 1,400 suppliers in 46
States, a firm commitment to program stability is absolutely
essential to create conditions where suppliers view efficiency
gains as a path to increased orders. Again, your commitment to
F/A-22 program stability is what has allowed this to happen,
and we thank you.
At the same time as we strive for program stability, we are
transforming the F/A-22's capabilities. Through deliberate
spiral development, we are integrating new avionics and weapons
to make it a premier air-to-ground strike system, as well. In
addition to obtaining and sustaining air dominance, the F/A-22
will counter existing and emerging threats, such as advanced
surface-to-air missile systems of the SA-20 and the SA-400
family, time-sensitive targets, moving targets, and cruise
missiles, protecting our Navy colleagues, our deployed soldiers
and airmen, or, God forbid, even our homeland, to a greater
fidelity than anything we have in our legacy systems.
And we just completed Defense Acquisition Board the day
before yesterday, and it was characterized by all members as
very encouraging. Members were satisfied. We expect to enter
into an initial operational test and evaluation near the end of
April, but it'll be event-driven. As of now, we see no
impediments to enter.
Also as part of a test, we were required to do a test
against the F-15, because there had been requirement that the
F/A-22 demonstrate that it was at least twice as good as the F-
15 in air-to-air combat. The head of the Air Force test
organization tells General Jumper and me that, in fact, the F/
A-22 proved to be roughly five times as good as the F-15.
We have also just completed LOT-4 negotiations for 22
aircraft. That means that we are at a position where the
recurring cost--not including research and development, but the
recurring cost of each airplane is under $110 million a copy.
We are on the price curve, as we had wished to be. And, again,
we thank you for the stability that's allowed us to do that.
Our F/A-22 budget request continues much needed program
stability and supports its transition from development to
operational tests with Initial Operational Capability (IOC) at
the end of calendar year 2005. The $4.8 billion request
includes funding for production of 24 aircraft, and continues
our smooth ramp-up to 32 jets per year. As you recall from last
year, Mr. Chairman, we have decided not to try and go beyond 32
because it would require additional facilities and other
things. We much prefer to have something that's stable, because
when you have a stable production line, you can work very hard
at finding efficiencies in order to get costs down and get
reliability up.
We look forward to the delivery of the first F/A-22 to
Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, this November as part of the
first operational squadron. IOC is clearly within sight, and
the Air Force is postured to deliver this transformational
capability, as anticipated, to the Joint Warfighter.
JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER--F-35
With respect to the Joint Strike Fighter, a complementary
capability to the F/A-22 should be provided by the F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter. This aircraft is expected to provide a
sustainable, focused close air-support platform for the Joint
Force commander. The benefits potentially to be gained from the
F-35 commonality across services and major allies will have no
comparison to any system in the fleet today.
With the F-35 only in its second year now of an 11-year
development program, we can effectively apply the production
quality and Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) lessons that
we learned on the F/A-22. In fact, every time there's a Defense
Acquisition Board meeting on the F/A-22, we require the F-35
team to be there to learn any lessons so that they don't repeat
any mistakes we might have made.
Together, these aircraft will be integral to our support of
ground forces in various environments flying different
profiles. They are not the same aircraft; they are very
different aircraft. They are not substitutes; they are
complements.
We, in the Air Force, are in the process of improving our
commitment to close air-support capability by planning to
acquire Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) and STOVL
variants of the F-35 to better support land forces, be they
Marine, Army, Coalition, or special operators.
In moving our Air Force into the STOVL world, with an
emphasis on the short takeoff for air support, we will look to
gain training efficiencies by working jointly with the Marine
Corps on facility use and course development. Additionally, we
are pressing for the early development of STOVL capability in
the program cycle to reduce risk.
Right now, there's a weight problem in the F-35 program,
and it most greatly affects the STOVL variant. We are working
with the Navy and with the people in Acquisition and the
Program Office to change the program so that risk reduction on
the STOVL becomes one of the paramount things to do in the
short-term, because if we cannot build a STOVL aircraft, then
we really don't--we should not proceed with the F-35 program.
A STOVL is key for a number of reasons--commonality with
the Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL), the fact that the
Marine Corps are very dependent on it, the fact that we will
become dependent on it. If we were merely to be designing a
plane to replace the F-16, we would probably have taken a
different route.
We believe this is doable, and we believe it is what you
would want us to do, which was to find the toughest part of the
program and to demonstrate to you that, in fact, the program is
a viable program. Since the Air Force will be taking over this
program sometime in June, end of May or June, we are committed
to being as transparent as possible to you about the program--
when there's a problem, tell you about the problems; when
there's something good, tell you about something good. Right
now we think what we owe you most is to prove that, in fact,
the short takeoff and landing aircraft can be developed from
this design, and can do it with the amount of weight that's
reasonable.
BOMBERS
With respect to our bombers, Mr. Chairman, during Operation
Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom we continue to
demonstrate our ability to link air and ground forces with our
airmen combat controllers, turning the battlefield air
operations from a concept into a reality, and giving Joint
Forces the tools they need to bring devastating fires to bear.
These young airmen, who operate on the ground, sometimes to the
back of forces in remote locations, have proven their worth to
our country, and they and their colleagues, as part of our
battlefield airmen field, will only be developing over time.
And we are working with the United States Army--in particular,
General Jumper and General Schoomaker--to assure that, as the
Army reorganizes and has smaller maneuver combat units, that we
will have the airmen for each of those units to be able to
bring air power to bear to support those ground forces.
B-52
A decade ago, we were concerned with the relevance of the
B-52. And, as John has pointed out, General LeMay never would
have predicted we'd employ B-52s from 39,000 feet in a close
air-support mission with such precision, but he would be proud.
And last year, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, reserve B-52
units from Louisiana figured out how to incorporate the
Litening II sensor pod on a ``BUFF'', and conducted the first
combat laser-guided employment. We were able to drop Laser-
Guided Bombs (LGBs) from a B-52. The first time the crew saw
the targets, they were actually attacking, and it became--these
planes became the two weapons of choice for the Combined Forces
Air Component Commander (CFACC) in the area, because they could
do so much more with them. We are now expanding that to cover
about 14 of the B-52s.
At one point, there were those who were writing off the B-
1, but we adapted the fleet. Today, we are using it in ways
never conceived. We removed the stores bay fuel tank to give it
increased carriage capability, and we developed tactics that
make it useful for new missions. With increased range and
duration over a target area measured in hours because of the
changed way we employ this aircraft, and the capability of
stacking aircraft in benign areas for execution of time-
sensitive or emerging targets, the B-1 and our whole bomber
force--have become theater weapons of choice, and we're
especially proud of the men and women who have made the B-1 so
effective.
Our bomber fleet of B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s are combat-
proven. Thanks to this committee, increased spare-parts funding
and your commitment to platform modernization and fleet
consolidation have resulted in record mission-capable rates and
a fleet that is more lethal and survivable. We truly have
achieved something together, sir.
B-1
Our B-1s achieved their highest mission-capability rate in
history thanks to a smaller fleet, improved availability of
spares, and the concentration on two bases with the best
maintainers split between those two bases, instead of five.
We've done well.
B-2
The B-2 fleet story is similar. We currently have 21 B-2
aircraft achieving their best mission-capable rate since its
IOC in 1997. With congressional support, shelters are now
available to support global B-2 expeditionary operations.
Today, we are investing in future technologies for enabling
long-range strike for 2025 and beyond. Over the next year or
so, we will determine what form that long-range strike
capability will take. Our long-range strike strategy and
investment plan will sustain our legacy force and provide a
future stealthy, possibly regional bomber to deliver combatant
commanders combat effects. When we say ``regional bomber'', we
mean a bomber that is big enough to carry a number of weapons,
and stealthy, able to fight or to evade a fight and, thereby,
be able to be daytime stealth, because right now all our
stealthy systems can only be operated at night. The exact range
is to be determined, but could be something like three-quarters
that of a B-2 or, for certain design, might even exceed that of
a B-2.
C-17
C-17 next, sir. Another warfighting success story rests
with a key enabler of our strategic mobility, the C-17, and
this committee has been heavily involved in it from the very,
very beginning. Therefore, we're proud to say that we have a
fleet that now includes 116 aircraft, of which 79 are available
for immediate global mobility with a mission-capable rate of
86.7. This is the highest mission-capable rate in our manned-
aircraft fleet.
Combat employment of the C-17 has been even more
impressive, and would not have been possible without the
support of you and your colleagues, Mr. Chairman. For instance,
while we were constrained from access by land, 15 Air Force C-
17s airdropped over 950 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne
Brigade, and 23 airmen, into Northern Iraq. This successful
mission opened Bashur airfield and assured the United States
(U.S.) ground forces could be resupplied in the northern part
of Iraq. As of today, the C-17 has flown the bulk of U.S.
airlift missions supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and
Operation Enduring Freedom flying over 40 percent of all
aircraft sorties, delivering 260,000 tons of cargo. The
additional 60 C-17s approved in the multi-year buy is a
continued step in the right direction to support this nation's
airlift requirements. With your committee's support, the C-17
program and the multi-year funding profile provides the
stability and maximizes production, while enabling suppliers to
gain efficiencies, providing cost savings. We still believe
that the 60 multi-year, as you've allowed us to do it, sir,
enables us to save at least $1 billion over the course of the
program. That's equal to four more planes. We are getting 60
planes for roughly the price of 56.
TANKERS
Tankers, Mr. Chairman. As you know, our tanker
recapitalization initiative is on hold. The initiative is
complicated enough, as you know, so I am in complete agreement
with Secretary Rumsfeld's desire to review the program and
ensure that it is not tainted in any way.
Meanwhile, we are programming money, starting at fiscal
year 2006, to conduct a KCX tanker replacement program, and
that has been our plan all along. As a critical joint enabler
of U.S. power projection, our global aerial refueling fleet
serves Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coalition aircraft.
Recapitalization of the KC-135 fleet, over 540 aerial refueling
aircraft, will clearly take years to complete, and their
average age, as you are well aware, is roughly 43 years. The
Air Force is committed to an acquisition approach for this
program that brings the best capability to the Joint Warfighter
at the lowest possible cost and in the most efficient manner.
UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES
If I may now, I'll just touch on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(UAVs). We, again, would like to thank this committee for its
contribution to our UAV force and remotely piloted aircraft. I
know, personally, a number of you were interested in this
subject long before the services were, and now I think you can
point with pride to your early positions.
Since beginning operations with these transformational
systems, you have enabled us to make this a valuable asset in
the conduct of modern-day warfare and the prosecution of time-
sensitive targets. In just 2 years, these aircraft have evolved
from intelligence platforms used to see over the next hill,
into systems that can now provide Joint and Coalition Forces
with intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, target
acquisition, and, in the case of the armed Predator, direct
attack.
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, we further refined Predator
capabilities, as well as Global Hawk capabilities, sending
realtime Predator feeds to other airborne platforms and to
ground forces. Now, in fact, we have 20-some of these units we
call Rover 2's, which are the--to downlink instruments from the
Predator to the ground forces, that they're going to use in
Iraq.
Being able to run five simultaneous combat orbits through
advanced technology and tactics development was also
demonstrated. Innovations in our laser Hellfire operation saved
lives and refined the standards for time-sensitive targeting.
Last year, we used Predators, as well as our Global Hawk UAV,
to assist in the effort to preclude Scud launches from the
western desert of Iraq. Integrated with special operations and
other air assets, these unmanned aircraft allowed small teams
to own and control 6 million acres of territory that had been
the launching points for dozens of Scud missiles during the
1991 gulf war. With small teams, with that kind of air
surveillance, backed up by attack aircraft, we suppressed the
western part of Iraq.
Mr. Chairman, I know you know that we, in fact, were able
to practice with the same people, the leaders of this, in the
western part of the United States night after night after
night, quite secretly. Our range is the size of Connecticut.
Two Connecticuts make the size of western Iraq. We moved that
identical team right over, and these were our Army folk, some
Navy, Air Force, some Coalition allies, special operators, who
had trained night after night together, and then we moved them.
Working with other intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance
assets, the Predator also provided target acquisition and
conducted direct attacks on targets where the chances of
collateral damage were high. We loved the story of a pilot
named Yvanna, and she took her Predator to remove Baghdad Bob
off the airwaves. She had to destroy his satellite dish,
antennae, and generator, and it was set up only a few yards
away from international media antennaes, and very close to a
mosque. She operated the Predator slowly, as she said. As you
know, Mr. Chairman, this thing only can go 70 knots, at best.
But she came in slowly, to be very quiet. She coordinated with
the Combat Air Operations Center (CAOC) in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. She was flying the vehicle from the United States. She
flew over downtown Baghdad. She found the target, made sure
that the laser beamed exactly the right spot, and blew it away,
and the other media never even noticed. It was a beautiful job,
and there was no collateral damage.
GLOBAL HAWK
Another example that we're very proud of is the work of the
Global Hawk with our Joint Surveillance Targeting Attack Radar
System (JOINTSTARS) working against the Medina Division in the
midst of a sandstorm. As my colleague often points out, when
people talked about a lull in the war, I don't think they ever
asked the commander of the Medina Division, because he was
certainly not experiencing a lull, and he found that if he
moved, he could be identified, and his units were killed.
PREDATOR
Examples like these reinforce our current plan for a force
of 68 Predator A's. We expect many of our ongoing initiatives
in this platform to pay big dividends. Developing multi-
spectral sensors, improving our weapons integration and
communication links remain top priorities for our Predator
force.
For Predator B production, General Jumper and I have
directed a more deliberate acquisition program to ensure we
deliver an effective and sustainable hunter/killer capability
to the warfighter. And John just visited the Predator B
yesterday, and he may want to comment on it.
We have also reviewed the fielding strategy to get us up to
60 aircraft, the requisite sensors, and ground stations. This
will allow for early deliveries of interim combat capability,
support near-term requirements, while ensuring a disciplined
development program.
There's a lot we could go on about the Global Hawk, sir. We
are going to be ordering 34 of these over the Future Years
Defense Plan (FYDP). These were used differently than ever
intended during the Iraqi War. Our young teams taught us how
these things should be used in ways we never envisioned, and we
are just delighted that they have applied their brains and come
back with some wonderful new doctrine and tactics.
In space, sir, may I comment that the leadership--under the
leadership of Under Secretary of the Air Force Pete Teets, we
are working to put our space programs on track. Pete inherited
a number of ongoing programs that needed revitalizing. Besides
working programs, he has increased the unity of effort among
the Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office, and
intelligence community in ways that we have never seen in the
past. I can think of no one more knowledgeable to lead our
space efforts and our space personnel. Recognizing these space
professionals as a segment of warriors requiring special
attention, Pete Teets has developed a roadmap designed to
develop more in-depth expertise in operational and technical
space specialties.
This evolving expertise served us well in Operation Iraqi
Freedom, where Air Force General Buzz Moseley was both the
CFACC and the senior space authority for all Joint and
Coalition space activities. These improvements will continue to
enhance space support for the warfighter, bring a joint
perspective to our Department of Defense's executive agents--
our role as the Department of Defense's executive agent for
space.
Our next step in space will be to focus on what we call
Joint Warfighting in space, a new initiative that General
Jumper and I are trying to undertake. This focus area strives
to develop rapidly launched, responsive, and survivable
Microsats that advances our ability to protect our space assets
and enhances our direct support to Joint Force commanders
throughout the globe. Part of that support includes Command and
Control (C\2\) networks. Using both air and space media, we
envision a C\2\ constellation that is robust, a protected
network, and globally based command and control system that
accomplishes all levels of the battle. This network is one that
allows machines to do the integration and fusion, but leaves
combat experience and judgement to leaders. It uses battlefield
management command and control that will consist of command
sensors--command centers, sensors, and systems, like space-
based radar (SBR), transformational satellite (TSAT)
communications, Global Hawk, Predator, other drones, airborne--
AMTI and GMTI--that's airborne moving target indicator and
ground moving target indicator--distribute a common ground
picture in our air operations centers, all geared towards
achieving the objectives of the joint battlefield commander. We
are at the very early stages, and now we're thinking through
what the architecture ought to be.
Mr. Chairman, our 2005 budget supports the Air Force's
joint focus. The $98.5 billion budget request invests in a
portfolio of military advantages, advantages that depend on our
ability to develop and maintain our airmen, maintain our
readiness, improve our infrastructure, and provide decisive
effects-based capabilities to the Joint Force commander
anytime, anyplace, under any condition. Our budget request
increases both Research Development Test and Evaluation (RTD&E)
and procurement to support our emphasis on transformation and
modernization, consistent with the strategy we discussed.
FISCAL YEAR 2005 BUDGET REQUEST
In the fiscal year 2005 budget request, we make a
significant investment in a number of critical joint systems--
14 C-17s, 11 C-130J's, seven Predators, A's and two B's, four
Global Hawks, and joint space capabilities, including
transformational communications, space-based radar, and
military satellite communications (SATCOM). We're also
investing in joint weapons, including more than 23,000 Joint
Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). Our bottom line, Mr. Chairman,
is that we are committed to the joint fight. In fact, joint
enablers account for roughly 50 percent of the Air Force's real
budget growth.
SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS
Finally, we know there are concerns with respect to our
ability to continue operating without a supplemental. In the
Air Force, we have the ability to cash-flow into fiscal year
2005, preserving our ability of operating at home and abroad.
This assumes we get no additional bills in any kind of
rebalancing. Right now, we see ourselves about $2 billion
short, and that's because of some bills that have come, plus
some other changes inside the Air Force, and we are looking for
ways to reprogram to handle those.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am proud to be
a part of the finest Air Force in the world, and I'm honored to
be part of the joint team that has done so much to defend
America and our interests. With your continued support and the
investments--that this budget makes in adapting our force to
the demands of this new era, we will continue to deliver for
our Nation.
PREPARED STATEMENT
I look forward to your questions. Thank you so much for all
your support, sir.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. James G. Roche
Mr. Chairman, Senator Inouye, and distinguished members of the
committee, the Air Force has an unlimited horizon for air and space
capabilities. Our Service was borne of innovation, and we remain
focused on identifying and developing the concepts of operations,
advanced technologies, and integrated operations required to provide
the joint force with unprecedented capabilities and to remain the
world's dominant air and space force.
Throughout our distinguished history, America's Air Force has
remained the world's premier air and space power because of our
professional airmen, our investment in warfighting technology, and our
ability to integrate our people and systems together to produce
decisive effects. These Air Force competencies are the foundation that
will ensure we are prepared for the unknown threats of an uncertain
future. They will ensure that our Combatant Commanders have the tools
they need to maintain a broad and sustained advantage over any emerging
adversaries.
In this strategic environment of the 21st century, and along with
our sister services, our Air Force will continue to fulfill our
obligation to protect America, deter aggression, assure our allies, and
defeat our enemies. As we adapt the Air Force to the demands of this
era, we remain committed to fulfilling our global commitments as part
of the joint warfighting team. In partnership, and with the continuing
assistance of the Congress, we will shape the force to meet the needs
of this century, fight the Global War on Terrorism, and defend our
nation.
The 2004 Posture Statement is our vision for the upcoming year and
is the blueprint we will follow to sustain our air and space dominance
in the future. We are America's Air Force--disciplined airmen, dominant
in warfighting, decisive in conflict.
introduction
In 2003, U.S. and coalition military operations produced
unprecedented mission successes--across the spectrum of conflict and
around the globe. The joint warfighting team demonstrated combat
capability never previously witnessed in the history of conflict.
Integrating capabilities from air, land, sea, and space, the U.S. and
coalition allies achieved considerable progress in the ongoing Global
War on Terrorism. In our most recent engagements, our armed forces
fulfilled our immediate obligations to defend America, deter
aggression, assure our allies, and defeat our enemies.
The foundation of these achievements can be found in the Department
of Defense's (DOD) commitment to teamwork and excellence. Operation
IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) was a joint and coalition warfighting effort from
planning to execution. Air, ground, maritime, and space forces worked
together at the same time for the same objectives, not merely staying
out of each other's way, but orchestrated to achieve wartime
objectives. Our air and space forces achieved dominance throughout the
entire theater, enabling maritime and ground forces to operate without
fear of enemy air attack. Our airmen demonstrated the flexibility,
speed, precision, and compelling effects of air and space power,
successfully engaging the full range of enemy targets, from the
regime's leadership to fielded forces. When our ground and maritime
components engaged the enemy, they were confident our airmen would be
there--either in advance of their attacks, or in support of their
operations. And America's Air Force was there, disciplined, dominant,
and decisive.
These operational accomplishments illustrate the growing maturation
of air and space power. Leveraging the expertise of our airmen, the
technologies present in our 21st century force, and the strategies,
concepts of operation, and organizations in use today, the U.S. Air
Force continues to adapt to meet the demands of this new era, while
pursuing the war on terrorism and defending the homeland.
On September 11, 2001, the dangers of the 21st century became
apparent to the world. Today, the United States faces an array of
asymmetric threats from terrorists and rogue states, including a threat
that poses the gravest danger to our nation, the growing nexus of
radicalism and technology. As we continue our work in Afghanistan and
Iraq, we stand ready to respond to flashpoints around the world,
prepared to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to
unfriendly states and non-state entities.
We are adapting to new and enduring challenges. As we do, we are
exploiting the inherent sources of strength that give us the advantages
we enjoy today. It is a strategy predicated on the idea that, if we
accurately assess our own advantages and strengths, we can invest in
them to yield high rates of military return. This approach helps us
create a portfolio of advantages allowing us to produce and continue to
exploit our capabilities. Our goal is to create a capability mix
consistent with operational concepts and effects-driven methodology,
relevant to the joint character and increasingly asymmetric conduct of
warfare.
Since 1945, when General Henry ``Hap'' Arnold and Dr. Theodore von
Karman published Toward New Horizons, the Air Force has evolved to meet
the changing needs of the nation--with the sole objective of improving
our ability to generate overwhelming and strategically compelling
effects from air and now, space. It is our heritage to adapt and we
will continue to do so. During this comparatively short history, we
became the best air and space force in the world through our focus on
the development of professional airmen, our investment in warfighting
technology, and our ability to integrate people and systems to produce
decisive joint warfighting effects.
The Air Force is making a conscious investment in education,
training, and leader development to foster critical thinking,
innovation, and encourage risk taking. We deliberately prepare our
airmen--officer, enlisted, and civilian--with experience, assignments,
and broadening that will allow them to succeed. When our airmen act in
the combined or joint arena, whether as an Air Liaison Officer to a
ground maneuver element, or as the space advisor to the Joint Force
Commander (JFC), this focused professional development will guide their
success.
We are also investing in technologies that will enable us to create
a fully integrated force of intelligence capabilities, manned, unmanned
and space assets that communicate at the machine-to-machine level, and
real-time global command and control (C\2\) of joint, allied, and
coalition forces. Collectively, these assets will enable compression of
the targeting cycle and near-instantaneous global precision-strike.
As we cultivate new concepts of global engagement, we will move
from analog to digital processes and adopt more agile, non-linear ways
of integrating to achieve mission success. This change in thinking
leads to capabilities including: networked communications; multi-
mission platforms which fuse multi-spectral sensors; integrated global
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); robust, all-
weather weapons delivery with increased standoff; small smart weapons;
remotely-piloted and unattended aircraft systems; advanced air
operations centers; more secure position, navigation, and timing; and a
new generation of satellites with more operationally responsive launch
systems.
Investment in our core competencies is the foundation of our
preparation for future threats. They ensure we have the tools we need
to maintain strategic deterrence as well as a sustained advantage over
our potential adversaries. Ultimately, they ensure we can deliver the
dominant warfighting capability our nation needs.
Potential adversaries, however, continue to pursue capabilities
that threaten the dominance we enjoy today. Double-digit surface-to-air
missile systems (SAMs) are proliferating. China has purchased
significant numbers of these advanced SAMs, and there is a risk of
wider future proliferation to potential threat nations. Fifth-
generation advanced aircraft with capabilities superior to our present
fleet of frontline fighter/attack aircraft are in production. China has
also purchased, and is developing, advanced fighter aircraft that are
broadly comparable to the best of our current frontline fighters.
Advanced cruise missile technology is expanding, and information
technology is spreading. Access to satellite communications, imagery,
and use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) signal for navigation
are now available for anyone willing to purchase the necessary
equipment or services. With this relentless technological progress and
the potential parity of foreign nations, as well as their potential
application in future threats, the mere maintenance of our aging
aircraft and space systems will not suffice. Simply stated, our current
fleet of legacy systems cannot always ensure air and space dominance in
future engagements.
To counter these trends, we are pursuing a range of strategies that
will guide our modernization and recapitalization efforts. We are using
a capabilities-based planning and budgeting process, an integrated and
systematic risk assessment system, a commitment to shorter acquisition
cycle times, and improved program oversight. Our goal is to integrate
our combat, information warfare, and support systems to create a
portfolio of air and space advantages for the joint warfighter and the
nation. Thus, we continue to advocate for program stability in our
modernization and investment accounts.
The principal mechanisms that facilitate this process are our Air
Force Concepts of Operation (CONOPS). Through the CONOPS, we analyze
problems we'll be asked to solve for the JFCs, identify the
capabilities our expeditionary forces need to accomplish their
missions, and define the operational effects we expect to produce.
Through this approach, we can make smarter decisions about future
investment, articulate the link between systems and employment
concepts, and identify our capability gaps and risks.
The priorities that emerge from the CONOPS will guide a reformed
acquisition process that includes more active, continuous, and creative
partnerships among the requirement, development, operational test, and
industry communities who work side-by-side at the program level. In our
science and technology planning, we are also working to demonstrate and
integrate promising technologies quickly by providing an operational
``pull'' that conveys a clear vision of the capabilities we need for
the future.
We are applying this approach to our space systems as well. As the
DOD's Executive Agent for Space, we are producing innovative solutions
for the most challenging national security problems. We have defined a
series of priorities essential to delivering space-based capabilities
to the joint warfighter and the Intelligence Community. Achieving
mission success--in operations and acquisition--is our principal
priority. This requires us to concentrate on designing and building
quality into our systems. To achieve these exacting standards, we will
concentrate on the technical aspects of our space programs early on--
relying on strong systems engineering design, discipline, and robust
test programs. We also have many areas that require a sustained
investment. We need to replace aging satellites, improve outmoded
ground control stations, achieve space control capabilities to ensure
freedom of action, sustain operationally responsive assured access to
space, address bandwidth limitations, and focus space science and
technology investment programs. This effort will require reinvigorating
the space industrial base and funding smaller technology incubators to
generate creative ``over the horizon'' ideas.
As we address the problem of aging systems through renewed
investment, we will continue to find innovative means to keep current
systems operationally effective. In OIF, the spirit of innovation
flourished. We achieved a number of air and space power firsts:
employment of the B-1 bomber's synthetic aperture radar and ground
moving target indicator for ISR; incorporation of the Litening II
targeting pod on the F-15, F-16, A-10, and the B-52; and use of a
Global Hawk for strike coordination and reconnaissance while flown as a
remotely piloted aircraft. With these integrated air and space
capabilities, we were able to precisely find, fix, track, target, and
rapidly engage our adversaries. These examples illustrate how we are
approaching adaptation in the U.S. Air Force.
Ultimately, the success of our Air Force in accomplishing our
mission and adapting to the exigencies of combat stems from the more
than 700,000 active, guard, reserve, and civilian professionals who
proudly call themselves ``airmen.'' In the past five years, they have
displayed their competence and bravery in three major conflicts: the
Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They are a formidable warfighting
force, imbued with an expeditionary culture, and ready for the
challenges of a dangerous world.
Poised to defend America's interests, we continue to satisfy an
unprecedented demand for air and space warfighting capabilities--
projecting American power globally while providing effective homeland
defense. This is the U.S. Air Force in 2004--we foster ingenuity in the
world's most professional airmen, thrive on transitioning new
technologies into joint warfighting systems, and drive relentlessly
toward integration to realize the potential of our air and space
capabilities. We are America's Airmen--confident in our capability to
provide our nation with dominance in air and space.
air and space dominance in a new environment
The U.S. Air Force ensures a flexible, responsive, and dominant
force by providing a spectrum of operational capabilities that
integrate with joint and coalition forces. To sustain and improve upon
the dominance we enjoy today, the Air Force will remain engaged with
the other services, our coalition partners, interagency teams, and the
aerospace industry. As we do, we will incorporate the lessons learned
from rigorous evaluation of past operations, detailed analyses of
ongoing combat operations, and thoughtful prediction of the
capabilities required of a future force.
The pace of operations over the past year enabled us to validate
the function and structure of our Air and Space Expeditionary Forces
(AEFs). Operations in 2003 demanded more capability from our AEFs than
at any time since their inception in 1998. However, for the first time
we relied exclusively on our AEFs to present the full range of our
capabilities to the Combatant Commanders. Through our 10 AEFs, our AEF
prime capabilities (space, national ISR, long range strike, nuclear,
and other assets), and our AEF mobility assets, we demonstrated our
ability to package forces, selecting the most appropriate combat ready
forces from our Total Force, built and presented expeditionary units,
and flowed them to the theaters of operation in a timely and logical
sequence. We rapidly delivered them to the warfighters, while
preserving a highly capable residual force to satisfy our global
commitments.
More than three-fourths of our 359,300 active duty airmen are
eligible to deploy and are assigned to an AEF. Through much of the past
year, Total Force capabilities from 8 of the 10 AEFs were engaged
simultaneously in worldwide operations. The remaining elements were
returning from operations, training, or preparing to relieve those
currently engaged. By the end of 2003, more than 26,000 airmen were
deployed, supporting operations around the world.
In 2004, we will continue to use the AEFs to meet our global
requirements while concurrently reconstituting the force. Our number
one reconstitution priority is returning our forces to a sustainable
AEF battle rhythm while conducting combat operations. Attaining this
goal is about revitalizing capabilities. For most airmen, that will
include a renewed emphasis on joint composite force training and
preparation for rotations in the AEF. Through the AEF, the Air Force
presents right-sized, highly trained expeditionary units to JFCs for
employment across the spectrum of conflict.
Global War on Terrorism
The year 2003 marked another historic milestone for the United
States and the Air Force in the Global War on Terrorism. Since
September 11, 2001, air and space power has proven indispensable to
securing American skies, defeating the Taliban, denying sanctuary to al
Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, and most recently, removing a
brutal and oppressive dictator in Iraq. This Global War on Terrorism
imposes on airmen a new steady state of accelerated operations and
personnel tempo (PERSTEMPO), as well as a demand for unprecedented
speed, agility, and innovation in defeating unconventional and
unexpected threats, all while bringing stability and freedom to
Afghanistan and Iraq. The Air Force and its airmen will meet these
demands.
Operation NOBLE EAGLE
High above our nation, airmen protect our skies and cities through
air defense operations known as Operation NOBLE EAGLE (ONE). The Total
Force team, comprised of active duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force
Reserve airmen, conducts airborne early warning, air refueling, and
combat air patrol operations in order to protect sensitive sites,
metropolitan areas, and critical infrastructure.
This constant ``top cover'' demands significant Air Force assets,
thus raising the baseline of requirements above the pre-September 11
tempo. Since 2001, this baseline has meant over 34,000 fighter, tanker,
and airborne early warning sorties were added to Air Force
requirements.
This year the Air Force scrambled nearly 1,000 aircraft, responding
to 800 incidents. Eight active duty, eight Air Force Reserve, and 18
Air National Guard units provided 1,300 tanker sorties offloading more
than 32 million pounds of fuel for these missions. Last year, over
2,400 airmen stood vigilant at air defense sector operations centers
and other radar sites. Additionally, in 2003, we continued to
institutionalize changes to our homeland defense mission through joint,
combined, and interagency training and planning. Participating in the
initial validation exercise DETERMINED PROMISE-03, the Air Force
illustrated how its air defense, air mobility, and command and control
capabilities work seamlessly with other agencies supporting NORTHCOM
and Department of Homeland Security objectives. The integration and
readiness that comes from careful planning and rigorous training will
ensure the continued security of America's skies.
Operation ENDURING FREEDOM--Afghanistan
Operation ENDURING FREEDOM--Afghanistan (OEF) is ongoing. Remnants
of Taliban forces continue to attack United States, NATO, coalition
troops, humanitarian aid workers, and others involved in the
reconstruction of Afghanistan. To defeat this threat, aid coalition
stability, and support operations, the Air Force has maintained a
presence of nearly 24,000 airmen in and around the region. Having
already flown more than 90,000 sorties (over 72 percent of all OEF
missions flown), the Air Force team of active, Guard, and Reserve
airmen continue to perform ISR, close air support (CAS), aerial
refueling, and tactical and strategic airlift.
While fully engaged in ONE and OIF, the men and women of the Air
Force provided full spectrum air and space support, orchestrating
assets from every service and ten different nations. Of these, Air
Force strike aircraft flying from nine bases flew more than two-thirds
of the combat missions, dropped more than 66,000 munitions (9,650 tons)
and damaged or destroyed approximately three-quarters of planned
targets. In 2003 alone, Air Force assets provided more than 3,000
sorties of on-call CAS, responding to calls from joint and/or coalition
forces on the ground.
Last year, the Air Force brought personnel and materiel into this
distant, land-locked nation via 7,410 sorties. Over 4,100 passengers
and 487 tons of cargo were moved by airmen operating at various Tanker
Airlift Control Elements in and around Afghanistan. To support these
airlift and combat sorties and the numerous air assets of the coalition
with aerial refueling, the Air Force deployed over 50 tankers. In their
primary role, these late 1950s-era and early 1960s-era KC-135 tankers
flew more than 3,900 refueling missions. In their secondary airlift
role, they delivered 3,620 passengers and 405 tons of cargo. Without
versatile tankers, our armed forces would need greater access to
foreign bases, more aircraft to accomplish the same mission, more
airlift assets, and generate more sorties to maintain the required
duration on-station.
Operations in Afghanistan also highlight U.S. and coalition
reliance on U.S. space capabilities. This spanned accurate global
weather, precise navigation, communications, as well as persistent
worldwide missile warning and surveillance. For example, OEF relied on
precision navigation provided by the Air Force's GPS constellation,
over-the-horizon satellite communications (SATCOM), and timely
observations of weather, geodesy, and enemy activity. To accomplish
this, space professionals performed thousands of precise satellite
contacts and hundreds of station keeping adjustments to provide
transparent space capability to the warfighter. These vital space
capabilities and joint enablers directly leveraged our ability to
pursue U.S. objectives in OEF.
Operations NORTHERN WATCH and SOUTHERN WATCH
During the past 12 years, the Air Force flew over 391,000 sorties
enforcing the northern and southern no-fly zones over Iraq. With the
preponderance of forces, the Air Force, along with the Navy and Marine
Corps, worked alongside the Royal Air Force in Operations NORTHERN
WATCH (ONW) and SOUTHERN WATCH (OSW). Manning radar outposts and
established C\2\ centers, conducting ISR along Iraq's borders,
responding to almost daily acts of Iraqi aggression, and maintaining
the required airlift and air refueling missions taxed Air Force assets
since the end of Operation DESERT STORM. Yet, these successful air
operations had three main effects: they halted air attacks on the
ethnic minority populations under the no-fly zones; they deterred a
repeat of Iraqi aggression against its neighbors; and they leveraged
enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolutions. Throughout
this period, our airmen honed their warfighting skills, gained
familiarity with the region, and were able to establish favorable
conditions for OIF. For more than a decade, American airmen rose to one
of our nation's most important challenges, containing Saddam Hussein.
Operation IRAQI FREEDOM
On March 19, 2003, our airmen, alongside fellow soldiers, sailors,
marines and coalition teammates, were called upon to remove the
dangerous and oppressive Iraqi regime--this date marked the end of ONW/
OSW and the beginning of OIF. OIF crystallized the meaning of jointness
and the synergies of combined arms and persistent battlefield
awareness.
In the first minutes of OIF, airmen of our Combat Air Forces (USAF,
USN, USMC, and coalition) were flying over Baghdad. As major land
forces crossed the line of departure, Air Force assets pounded Iraqi
command and control facilities and key leadership targets, decapitating
the decision-makers from their fielded forces. Remaining Iraqi leaders
operated with outdated information about ground forces that had already
moved miles beyond their reach. As the land component raced toward
Baghdad, coalition strike aircraft were simultaneously attacking Iraqi
fielded forces, communications and command and control centers,
surface-to-surface missile launch sites, and were supporting special
operations forces, and ensuring complete air and space dominance in the
skies over Iraq. Due to these actions and those during the previous 12
years, none of the 19 Iraqi missile launches were successful in
disrupting coalition operations, and not a single Iraqi combat sortie
flew during this conflict. Twenty-one days after major combat
operations began, the first U.S. land forces reached Baghdad. Five days
later, the last major city in Iraq capitulated.
The Air Force provided over 7,000 CAS sorties to aid land forces in
the quickest ground force movement in history. Lieutenant General
William S. Wallace, Commander of the U.S. Army V Corps said, ``none of
my commanders complained about the availability, responsiveness, or
effectiveness of CAS--it was unprecedented!'' As Iraqi forces attempted
to stand against the integrated air and ground offensive, they found a
joint and coalition team that was better equipped, better trained, and
better led than ever brought to the field of battle.
Training, leadership, and innovation coupled with the Air Force's
recent investment in air mobility allowed U.S. forces to open a second
major front in the Iraqi campaign. Constrained from access by land, Air
Force C-17s airdropped over 1,000 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne
Brigade into northern Iraq. This successful mission opened Bashur
airfield and ensured U.S. forces could be resupplied.
Before 2003, the Air Force invested heavily in the lessons learned
from OEF. Shortening the ``kill chain,'' or the time it took to find,
fix, track, target, engage, and assess was one of our top priorities.
This investment was worthwhile, as 156 time-sensitive targets were
engaged within minutes, most with precision weapons. The flexibility of
centralized control and decentralized execution of air and space power
enabled direct support to JFC objectives throughout Iraq. Coalition and
joint airpower shaped the battlefield ahead of ground forces, provided
intelligence and security to the flanks and rear of the rapidly
advancing coalition, and served as a force multiplier for Special
Operations forces. This synergy between Special Operations and the Air
Force allowed small specialized teams to have a major effect throughout
the northern and western portions of Iraq by magnifying their inherent
lethality, guaranteeing rapid tactical mobility, reducing their
footprint through aerial resupply, and providing them the advantage of
``knowing what was over the next hill'' through air and space-borne
ISR.
The Air Force's C\2\ISR assets enabled the joint force in
Afghanistan as well. This invaluable fleet includes the RC-135 Rivet
Joint, E-8 JSTARS, and the E-3 AWACS. This ``Iron Triad'' of
intelligence sensors and C\2\ capabilities illustrates the Air Force
vision of horizontal integration in terms of persistent battlefield
awareness. Combined with the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle and
Predator remotely piloted aircraft, spaced-based systems, U-2, and
Compass Call, these invaluable system provided all-weather, multi-
source intelligence to commanders from all services throughout the area
of responsibility.
OIF was the Predator's first ``networked'' operation. Four
simultaneous Predator orbits were flown over Iraq and an additional
orbit operated over Afghanistan, with three of those orbits controlled
via remote operations in the United States. This combined reachback
enabled dynamic support to numerous OIF missions. Predator also
contributed to our operational flexibility, accomplishing hunter-killer
missions, tactical ballistic missile search, force protection, focused
intelligence collection, air strike control, and special operations
support. A Hellfire equipped Predator also conducted numerous precision
strikes against Iraqi targets, and flew armed escort missions with U.S.
Army helicopters.
Space power provided precise, all-weather navigation, global
communications, missile warning, and surveillance. The ability to adapt
to adverse weather conditions, including sandstorms, allowed air, land,
and maritime forces to confound the Iraqi military and denied safe
haven anywhere in their own country. As the Iraqis attempted to use
ground-based GPS jammers, Air Force strike assets destroyed them, in
some cases, using the very munitions the jammers attempted to defeat.
As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld noted, this new era was
illustrated by the coalition's ``unprecedented combination of power,
precision, speed, and flexibility.''
During the height of OIF, the Air Force deployed 54,955 airmen.
Ambassador Paul Bremer, Chief of the Coalition Provisional Authority,
pronounced, ``In roughly three weeks [we] liberated a country larger
than Germany and Italy combined, and [we] did so with forces smaller
than the Army of the Potomac.'' Led by the finest officers and non-
commissioned officers, our airmen flew more than 79,000 sorties since
March of 2003. Ten thousand strike sorties dropped 37,065 munitions.
The coalition flew over 55,000 airlift sorties moved 469,093 passengers
and more than 165,060 tons of cargo. In addition, over 10,000 aerial
refueling missions supported aircraft from all services, and 1,600 ISR
missions provided battlespace awareness regardless of uniform, service,
or coalition nationality. This was a blistering campaign that demanded
a joint and combined effort to maximize effects in the battlespace.
Today, Air Force airmen continue to contribute to the joint and
coalition team engaged in Iraq. At the end of the year, 6,723 airmen
from the active duty, Reserve, and Air National Guard conducted a wide
range of missions from locations overseas, flying approximately 150
sorties per day including CAS for ground forces tracking down regime
loyalists, foreign fighters, and terrorists. On a daily basis, U-2 and
RC-135 aircraft flew ISR sorties monitoring the porous borders of Iraq
and providing situational awareness and route planning for Army patrols
in stability and support operations. Providing everything from base
security for 27 new bases opened by the coalition to the lifeline of
supplies that air mobility and air refueling assets bring to all joint
forces, Air Force airmen are committed to the successful accomplishment
of the U.S. mission in Iraq.
Other Contingency Operations
In 2003, the Air Force remained engaged in America's war on drugs
and provided support to NATO ground forces in the Balkans. Since
December 1989, Air Force airmen have been an irreplaceable part of the
interagency fight against illegal drug and narcotics trafficking.
Deployed along the southern United States, in the Caribbean, and
Central and South America, airmen perform this round-the-clock mission,
manning nine ground-based radar sites, operating ten aerostats, and
flying counter drug surveillance missions. The Air Force detected,
monitored, and provided intercepts on over 275 targets attempting to
infiltrate our airspace without clearance. Along with our interagency
partners, these operations resulted in 221 arrests and stopped hundreds
of tons of contraband from being smuggled into our country.
In the Balkans, airmen are fully committed to completing the
mission that they started in the 1990s. Today, Air Force airmen have
flown over 26,000 sorties supporting Operations JOINT GUARDIAN and
JOINT FORGE. These NATO-led operations combine joint and allied forces
to implement the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia-Herzegovina and enforce
the Military Technical Agreement in Kosovo. At the end of 2003,
approximately 800 airmen were supporting NATO's goal of achieving a
secure environment and promoting stability in the region.
Additionally, the Air Force engaged in deterrence and humanitarian
relief in other regions. While the world's attention was focused on the
Middle East in the spring of 2003, our nation remained vigilant against
potential adversaries in Asia. The Air Force deployed a bomber wing--24
B-52s and B-1s--to the American territory of Guam to deter North Korea.
At the height of OIF, our Air Force demonstrated our country's resolve
and ability to defend the Republic of Korea and Japan by surging bomber
operations to over 100 sorties in less than three days. This deterrent
operation complemented our permanent engagement in Northeast Asia. The
8,300 airmen who are stationed alongside the soldiers, sailors,
Marines, and our Korean allies maintained the United Nations armistice,
marking 50 years of peace on the peninsula.
Our strength in deterring aggression was matched by our strength in
humanitarian action. In response to President Bush's directive to help
stop the worsening crisis in Liberia, we deployed a non-combat medical
and logistics force to create a lifeline to the American Embassy and
provide hope to the Liberian people. An Expeditionary Group of airmen
provided airlift support, aeromedical evacuation, force protection, and
theater of communications support. Flying more than 200 sorties, we
transported and evacuated civilians and members of the Joint Task Force
(JTF) from bases in Sierra Leone and Senegal. The 300 airmen deployed
in support of JTF-Liberia reopened the main airport in Monrovia, and
ensured the security for U.S. military and civilian aircraft providing
relief aid.
Strategic Deterrence
The ability of U.S. conventional forces to operate and project
decisive force is built on the foundation of our strategic deterrent
force; one that consists of our nuclear-capable aircraft and
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile forces, working with the U.S. Navy's
Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines. In 2003, these forces as well as,
persistent overhead missile warning sensors and supporting ground-based
radars, provided uninterrupted global vigilance deterring a nuclear
missile strike against the United States or our allies. The dedicated
airmen who operate these systems provide the force capability that
yields our deterrent umbrella. Should that deterrence fail, they stand
ready to provide a prompt, scalable response.
Exercises
The Air Force's success can be attributed to the training,
education, and equipment of our airmen. Future readiness of our
operations, maintenance, mission support, and medical units will depend
on rigorous and innovative joint and coalition training and exercising.
This year we are planning 140 exercises with other services and
agencies and we anticipate being involved with 103 allied nations. We
will conduct these exercises in as many as 45 foreign countries.
Participation ranges from the Joint/Combined command post exercise
ULCHI FOCUS LENS with our South Korean partners to the tailored
international participation in our FLAG exercises and Mission
Employment Phases of USAF Weapons School. From joint search-and-rescue
forces in ARCTIC SAREX to Partnership for Peace initiatives, our airmen
must continue to take advantage of all opportunities that help us train
the way we intend to fight.
In addition to previously designed exercises, recent operations
highlighted the need for combat support training. During OEF and OIF,
the Air Force opened or improved 38 bases used by joint or coalition
forces during combat. Our Expeditionary Combat Support teams
established secure, operable airfields in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,
Pakistan, and in Iraq. They also built housing, established
communications, and erected dining facilities that are still used by
other services and follow-on forces today. To prepare our airmen for
these missions, we have created EAGLE FLAG, an Expeditionary Combat
Support Field Training Exercise. During this exercise, combat support
personnel apply the integrated skills needed to organize and create an
operating location ready to receive fully mission capable forces within
72 hours. From security forces and civil engineers to air traffic
controllers and logisticians, each airman required to open a new base
or improve an austere location will eventually participate in this
valuable exercise.
Our ranges and air space are critical joint enablers and vital
national assets that allow the Air Force to develop and test new
weapons, train forces, and conduct joint exercises. The ability of the
Air Force to effectively operate requires a finite set of natural and
fabricated resources. Encroachment of surrounding communities onto Air
Force resources results in our limited or denied access to, or use of,
these resources. We have made it a priority to define and quantify the
resources needed to support mission requirements, and to measure and
communicate the effects of encroachment on our installations, radio
frequency spectrum, ranges, and air space. We will continue to work
with outside agencies and the public to address these issues. The Air
Force strongly endorses the Readiness Range and Preservation
Initiative. It would make focused legislative changes, protecting the
Air Force's operational resources while continuing to preserve our
nation's environment.
Lessons for the Future
As we continue combat operations and prepare for an uncertain
future, we are examining lessons from our recent experiences. Although
we are currently engaged with each of the other services to refine the
lessons from OIF, many of the priorities listed in the fiscal year 2005
Presidential Budget submission reflect our preliminary conclusions. The
Air Force has established a team committed to turning validated lessons
into new equipment, new operating concepts, and possibly new
organizational structures. Working closely with our joint and coalition
partners, we intend to continue our momentum toward an even more
effective fighting force.
One of the most important lessons we can draw was envisioned by the
authors of the Goldwater-Nichols Act. ONE, OEF, and OIF all validated
jointness as the only acceptable method of fighting and winning this
nation's wars. In OIF, the mature relationship between the Combined
Forces Land Component Commander (CFLCC) and the Combined Forces Air
Component Commander (CFACC) led to unprecedented synergies. The CFACC
capitalized on these opportunities by establishing coordination
entities led by an Air Force general officer in the supported land
component headquarters and by maintaining internal Army, Navy, Marine
Corps, and coalition officers in his own headquarters. Both of these
organizational innovations enabled commanders to maximize the
advantages of mass, lethality, and flexibility of airpower in the area
of responsibility.
Another lesson is the Air Force's dependence on the Total Force
concept. As stated above, September 11 brought with it a new tempo of
operations, one that required both the active duty and Air Reserve
Component (ARC) to work in concert to achieve our national security
objectives. The synergy of our fully integrated active duty, Air
National Guard and Air Force Reserve team provides warfighters with
capabilities that these components could not provide alone.
Our reserve component accounts for over one-third of our strike
fighters, more than 72 percent of our tactical airlift, 42 percent of
our strategic airlift, and 52 percent of our air refueling capability.
The ARC also makes significant contributions to our rescue and support
missions, and has an increasing presence in space, intelligence, and
information operations. In all, the ARC provides a ready force
requiring minimum preparation for mobilization. Whether that
mobilization is supporting flight or alert missions for ONE, commanding
expeditionary wings in combat, or orchestrating the Air Force Special
Operations roles in the western Iraqi desert, the ARC will remain
critical to achieving the full potential of our air and space power.
A third lesson was validation of the need for air and space
superiority. Through recent combat operations, the Air Force maintained
its almost 50 year-old record of ``no U.S. ground troops killed by
enemy air attack.'' Without having to defend against Iraqi airpower,
coalition commanders could focus their combat power more effectively.
In addition, air and space superiority allowed airmen to dedicate more
sorties in support of the ground scheme of maneuver, substantially
reducing enemy capability in advance of the land component.
We also need to continue to advance integration and planning--
integration of service capabilities to achieve JFC objectives,
interagency integration to fight the war on terrorism, and information
integration. Integration of manned, unmanned and space sensors,
advanced command and control, and the ability to disseminate and act on
this information in near-real time will drive our combat effectiveness
in the future. Shared through interoperable machine-to-machine
interfaces, this data can paint a picture of the battlespace where the
sum of the wisdom of all sensors will end up with a cursor over the
target for the operator who can save the target, study the target, or
destroy the target.
Finally, there are three general areas for improvement we consider
imperative: battle damage assessment, fratricide prevention/combat
identification, and equipping our battlefield airmen. First, battle
damage assessment shapes the commander's ability for efficient
employment of military power. Restriking targets that have already been
destroyed, damaged, or made irrelevant by rapid ground force advances
wastes sorties that could be devoted to other coalition and joint force
objectives. Advances in delivery capabilities of our modern fighter/
attack aircraft and bombers mean that ISR assets must assess more
targets per strike than ever before. Precision engagement requires
precision location, identification, and precision assessment. Although
assets like the Global Hawk, Predator, U-2, Senior Scout, and Rivet
Joint are equipped with the latest collection technology, the Air
Force, joint team, and Intelligence Community must work to ensure that
combat assessments produce timely, accurate, and relevant products for
the warfighters.
We are also improving operational procedures and technology to
minimize incidents of fratricide or ``friendly fire.'' In OIF, major
steps toward this goal resulted from technological solutions. Blue
Force Tracker and other combat identification systems on many ground
force vehicles allowed commanders situational awareness of their forces
and enemy forces via a common operational picture. Still, not all joint
or coalition forces are equipped with these technological advances. We
are pursuing Fire Support Coordination Measures that capitalize on the
speed and situational awareness digital communications offer rather
than analog voice communications and grease pencils.
A third area we are actively improving is the effectiveness of the
airmen who are embedded with conventional land or Special Forces. With
assured access to Air Force datalinks and satellites, these
``Battlefield Airmen'' can put data directly into air-land-sea weapon
systems and enable joint force command and control. We have made great
progress in producing a Battlefield Air Operations Kit that is 70
percent lighter, with leading-edge power sources; one that will
increase the combat capability of our controllers. This battle
management system will reduce engagement times, increase lethality and
accuracy, and reduce the risk of fratricide. This capability is based
upon the good ideas of our airmen who have been in combat and
understand how much a single individual on the battlefield can
contribute with the right kit.
Summary
The airmen of America's Air Force have demonstrated their expertise
and the value of their contributions to the joint and coalition fight.
These combat operations are made possible by Air Force investments in
realistic training and education, superior organization, advanced
technology, and innovative tactics, techniques, and procedures. In the
future, our professional airmen will continue to focus advances in
these and other areas guided by the Air Force CONOPS. Their charter is
to determine the appropriate capabilities required for joint
warfighting and to provide maximum effects from, through, and in air
and space. This structure and associated capabilities-based planning
will help airmen on their transformational journey, ensuring continued
operational successes such as those demonstrated in 2003.
ensuring america's future air and space dominance
Air Force lethality, mobility, speed, precision, and the ability to
project U.S. military power around the globe provide Combatant
Commanders the capabilities required to meet the nation's military
requirements and dominate our enemies. Consistent with the DOD's focus
on Joint Operating Concepts, we will continue to transform our force--
meeting the challenges of this era, adapting our forces and people to
them, and operating our service efficiently. We will adopt service
concepts and capabilities that support the joint construct and
capitalize on our core competencies. To sustain our dominance, we
develop professional airmen, invest in warfighting technology, and
integrate our people and systems together to produce decisive joint
warfighting capabilities.
developing airmen--right people, right place, right time
At the heart of our combat capability are the professional airmen
who voluntarily serve the Air Force and our nation. Our airmen turn
ideas, tools, tactics, techniques, and procedures into global mobility,
power projection, and battlespace effects. Our focus for the ongoing
management and development of Air Force personnel will be to: define,
renew, develop, and sustain the force.
Defining our Requirements
To meet current and future requirements, we need the right people
in the right specialties. The post-September 11 environment has taxed
our equipment and our people, particularly those associated with force
protection, ISR, and the buildup and sustainment of expeditionary
operations. Our analysis shows that we need to shift manpower to
stressed career fields to meet the demands of this new steady state,
and we are in the process of doing this. We have realigned personnel
into our most stressed specialties and hired additional civilians and
contractors to free military members to focus on military specific
duties. We have also made multi-million dollar investments in
technology to reduce certain manpower requirements. We have redirected
our training and accession systems and have cross-trained personnel
from specialties where we are over strength to alleviate stressed
career fields, supporting the Secretary of Defense's vision of moving
forces ``from the bureaucracy to the battlefield.''
Since 2001, we've exceeded our congressionally mandated end
strength by more than 16,000 personnel. In light of the global war on
terrorism and OIF, DOD allowed this overage, but now we need to get
back to our mandated end strength. We are addressing this issue in two
ways: first, by reducing personnel overages in most skills; and second,
by shaping the remaining force to meet mission requirements. To reduce
personnel, we will employ a number of voluntary tools to restructure
manning levels in Air Force specialties, while adjusting our active
force size to the end strength requirement. As we progress, we will
evaluate the need to implement additional force shaping steps.
We are also reviewing our ARC manpower to minimize involuntary
mobilization of ARC forces for day-to-day, steady state operations
while ensuring they are prepared to respond in times of crisis. Since
September 11, 2001, we've mobilized more than 62,000 people in over 100
units, and many more individual mobilization augmentees. Today, 20
percent of our AEF packages are comprised of citizen airmen, and
members of the Guard or Reserve conduct 89 percent of ONE missions. We
recognize this is a challenge and are taking steps to relieve the
pressure on the Guard and Reserve.
In fiscal year 2005, we plan to redistribute forces in a number of
mission areas among the Reserve and Active components to balance the
burden on the Reserves. These missions include our Air and Space
Operations Centers, remotely piloted aircraft systems, Combat Search
and Rescue, Security Forces, and a number of high demand global
mobility systems. We are working to increase ARC volunteerism by
addressing equity of benefits and tour-length flexibility, while
addressing civilian employer issues. We are also looking at creating
more full-time positions to reduce our dependency on involuntary
mobilization.
We are entering the second year of our agreement to employ Army
National Guard soldiers for Force Protection at Air Force
installations, temporarily mitigating our 8,000 personnel shortfall in
Security Forces. As we do this, we are executing an aggressive plan to
rapidly burn down the need for Army augmentation and working to
redesign manpower requirements. Our reduction plan maximizes the use of
Army volunteers in the second year, and allows for demobilization of
about one-third of the soldiers employed in the first year.
Future Total Force
Just as in combat overseas, we are continuing to pursue seamless
ARC and active duty integration at home, leveraging the capabilities
and characteristics of each component, while allowing each to retain
their cultural identity. We continue to explore a variety of
organizational initiatives to integrate our active, Guard, and Reserve
forces. These efforts are intended to expand mission flexibility,
create efficiencies in our Total Force, and prepare for the future.
Today's Future Total Force team includes a number of blended or
associate units that are programmed or are in use. The creation of the
``blended'' unit, the 116th Air Control Wing at Robins Air Force Base,
Georgia, elevated integration to the next level. With an initial
deployment of over 730 personnel, and significant operational
achievements in OIF, we are now examining opportunities to integrate
active, Guard, and Reserve units elsewhere in order to produce even
more measurable benefits, savings, and efficiencies.
The reasons for this type of integration are compelling. We can
maximize our warfighting capabilities by integrating active, Guard, and
Reserve forces to optimize the contributions of each component.
Reservists and Guardsmen bring with them capabilities they have
acquired in civilian jobs, leveraging the experience of ARC personnel.
Integration relieves PERSTEMPO on the active duty force. Because ARC
members do not move as often, they provide corporate knowledge,
stability, and continuity. Finally, integration enhances the retention
of airmen who decide to leave active service. Because the Guard and
Reserve are involved in many Air Force missions, we recapture the
investment we've made by retaining separating active duty members as
members of the ARC.
Renewing the Force
To renew our force, we target our recruitment to ensure a diverse
force with the talent and drive to be the best airmen in the world's
greatest Air Force. We will recruit those with the skills most critical
for our continued success. In fiscal year 2003, our goal was 5,226
officers and 37,000 enlisted; we exceeded our goal in both categories,
accessing 5,419 officers and 37,144 enlisted. For fiscal year 2004, we
plan to access 5,795 officers and 37,000 enlisted.
In the Air Force, the capabilities we derive from diversity are
vital to mission excellence and at the core of our strategy to maximize
our combat capabilities. In this new era, successful military
operations demand much greater agility, adaptability, and versatility
to achieve and sustain success. This requires a force comprised of the
best our nation has to offer, from every segment of society, trained
and ready to go. Our focus is building a force that consists of men and
women who possess keener international insight, foreign language
proficiency, and wide-ranging cultural acumen. Diversity of life
experiences, education, culture, and background are essential to help
us achieve the asymmetric advantage we need to defend America's
interests wherever threatened. Our strength comes from the collective
application of our diverse talents, and is a critical component of the
air and space dominance we enjoy today. We must enthusiastically reach
out to all segments of society to ensure the Air Force offers a
welcoming career to the best and brightest of American society,
regardless of their background. By doing so, we attract people from all
segments of society and tap into the limitless talents resident in our
diverse population.
In addition to a diverse force, we also need the correct talent
mix. We remain concerned about recruiting health care professionals and
individuals with technical degrees. To meet our needs, we continue to
focus our efforts to ensure we attract and retain the right people. We
will also closely monitor ARC recruitment. Historically, the Air
National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command access close to 25 percent
of eligible, separating active duty Air Force members with no break in
service between their active duty and ARC service.
Developing the Force
Over the past year, we implemented a new force development
construct in order to get the right people in the right job at the
right time with the right skills, knowledge, and experience. Force
development combines focused assignments and education and training
opportunities to prepare our people to meet the mission needs of our
Air Force. Rather than allowing chance and happenstance to guide an
airman's experience, we will take a deliberate approach to develop
officers, enlisted, and civilians throughout our Total Force. Through
targeted education, training, and mission-related experience, we will
develop professional airmen into joint force warriors with the skills
needed across the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of
conflict. Their mission will be to accomplish the joint mission,
motivate teams, mentor subordinates, and train their successors.
A segment of warriors requiring special attention is our cadre of
space professionals, those that design, build, and operate our space
systems. As military dependence on space grows, the Air Force continues
to develop this cadre to meet our nation's needs. Our Space
Professional Strategy is the roadmap for developing that cadre. Air
Force space professionals will develop more in-depth expertise in
operational and technical space specialties through tailored
assignments, education, and training. This roadmap will result in a
team of scientists, engineers, program managers, and operators skilled
and knowledgeable in developing, acquiring, applying, sustaining, and
integrating space capabilities.
Sustaining the Force
The Air Force is a retention-based force. Because the skill sets of
our airmen are not easily replaced, we expend considerable effort to
retain our people, especially those in high-technology fields and those
in whom we have invested significant education and training. In 2003,
we reaped the benefits of an aggressive retention program, aided by a
renewed focus and investment on education and individual development,
enlistment and retention bonuses, targeted military pay raises, and
quality of life improvements. Our fiscal year 2003 enlisted retention
statistics tell the story. Retention for first term airmen stood at 61
percent, exceeding our goal by 6 percent. Retention for our second term
and career airmen was also impressive, achieving 73 percent and 95
percent respectively. Continued investment in people rewards their
service, provides a suitable standard of living, and enables us to
attract and retain the professionals we need.
One of the highlights of our quality of life focus is housing
investment. Through military construction and housing privatization, we
are providing quality homes faster than ever before. Over the next
three years, the Air Force will renovate or replace more than 40,000
homes through privatization. At the same time, we will renovate or
replace an additional 20,000 homes through military construction. With
the elimination of out-of-pocket housing expenses, our Air Force
members and their families now have three great options--local
community housing, traditional military family housing, and privatized
housing.
Focus On Fitness
We recognize that without motivated and combat-ready expeditionary
airmen throughout our Total Force, our strategies, advanced
technologies, and integrated capabilities would be much less effective.
That is why we have renewed our focus on fitness and first-class
fitness centers. We must be fit to fight. And that demands that we
reorient our culture to make physical and mental fitness part of our
daily life as airmen. In January 2004, our new fitness program returned
to the basics of running, sit-ups, and pushups. The program combines
our fitness guidelines and weight/body fat standards into one program
that encompasses the total health of an airman.
technology to warfighting
The Air Force has established a capabilities-based approach to war
planning, allowing us to focus investments on those capabilities we
need to support the joint warfighter. This type of planning focuses on
capabilities required to accomplish a variety of missions and to
achieve desired effects against any potential threats. Our
capabilities-based approach requires us to think in new ways and
consider combinations of systems that create distinctive capabilities.
Effects Focus: Capabilities-Based CONOPS
The Air Force has written six CONOPS that support capabilities-
based planning and the joint vision of combat operations. The CONOPS
help analyze the span of joint tasks we may be asked to perform and
define the effects we can produce. Most important, they help us
identify the capabilities an expeditionary force will need to
accomplish its mission, creating a framework that enables us to shape
our portfolio.
--Homeland Security CONOPS leverages Air Force capabilities with
joint and interagency efforts to prevent, protect, and respond
to threats against our homeland--within or beyond U.S.
territories.
--Space and Command, Control, Communications, Computers,
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance CONOPS (Space
and C\4\ISR) harnesses the integration of manned, unmanned, and
space systems to provide persistent situation awareness and
executable decision-quality information to the JFC.
--Global Mobility CONOPS provides Combatant Commanders with the
planning, command and control, and operations capabilities to
enable timely and effective projection, employment, and
sustainment of U.S. power in support of U.S. global interests--
precision delivery for operational effect.
--Global Strike CONOPS employs joint power-projection capabilities to
engage anti-access and high-value targets, gain access to
denied battlespace, and maintain battlespace access for
required joint/coalition follow-on operations.
--Global Persistent Attack CONOPS provides a spectrum of capabilities
from major combat to peacekeeping and sustainment operations.
Global Persistent Attack assumes that once access conditions
are established (i.e. through Global Strike), there will be a
need for persistent and sustained operations to maintain air,
space, and information dominance.
--Nuclear Response CONOPS provides the deterrent ``umbrella'' under
which conventional forces operate, and, if deterrence fails,
avails a scalable response.
This CONOPS approach has resulted in numerous benefits, providing:
--Articulation of operational capabilities that will prevail in
conflicts and avert technological surprises;
--An operational risk and capabilities-based programmatic decision-
making focus;
--Budgeting guidance to the Air Force Major Commands for fulfilling
capabilities-based solutions to satisfy warfighter
requirements;
--Warfighter risk management insights for long-range planning.
Modernization and Recapitalization
Through capabilities-based planning, the Air Force will continue to
invest in our core competency of bringing technology to the warfighter
that will maintain our technical advantage and update our air and space
capabilities. The Capabilities Review and Risk Assessment (CRRA)
process guides these efforts. Replacing an outdated threat-based review
process that focused on platforms versus current and future warfighting
effects and capabilities, our extensive two-year assessment identified
and prioritized critical operational shortfalls we will use to guide
our investment strategy. These priorities present the most significant
and immediate Air Force-wide capability objectives.
We need to field capabilities that allow us to reduce the time
required to find, fix, track and target fleeting and mobile targets and
other hostile forces. One system that addresses this operational
shortfall is the F/A-22 Raptor. In addition to its contributions to
obtaining and sustaining air dominance, the F/A-22 will allow all
weather, stealthy, precision strike 24 hours a day, and will counter
existing and emerging threats, such as advanced surface-to-air
missiles, cruise missiles, and time sensitive and emerging targets,
including mobile targets, that our legacy systems cannot. The F/A-22 is
in low rate initial production and has begun Phase I of its operational
testing. It is on track for initial operational capability in 2005. A
complementary capability is provided by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter,
providing sustainable, focused CAS and interservice and coalition
commonality.
We also recognize that operational shortfalls exist early in the
kill chain and are applying technologies to fill those gaps. A robust
command, control, and sensor portfolio combining both space and
airborne systems, along with seamless real-time communications, will
provide additional critical capabilities that address this shortfall
while supporting the Joint Operational Concept of full spectrum
dominance. Program definition and risk reduction efforts are moving us
towards C\4\ISR and Battle Management capabilities with shorter cycle
times. The JFC will be able to respond to fleeting opportunities with
near-real time information and will be able to bring to bear kill-chain
assets against the enemy. Additionally, in this world of proliferating
cruise missile technology, our work on improving our C\4\ISR
capabilities--including airborne Active Electronically Scanned Array or
AESA radar technology--could pay large dividends, playing a significant
role in America's defense against these and other threats. To create
this robust command and control network, we will need a flexible and
digital multi-service communications capability. We are well on our way
in defining the architecture to make it a reality. The capabilities we
are pursuing directly support the Department's transformational system
of interoperable joint C\4\ISR.
There is a need for a globally interconnected capability that
collects, processes, stores, disseminates, and manages information on
demand to warfighters, policy makers, and support people. The C\2\
Constellation, our capstone concept for achieving the integration of
air and space operations, includes these concepts and the future
capabilities of the Global Information Grid, Net Centric Enterprise
Services, Transformational Communications, the Joint Tactical Radio
System, and airborne Command, Control, and Communication assets, among
others.
One of the elements of a sensible strategy to maintain U.S. power
projection capabilities derives from a global aerial refueling fleet
that serves Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and coalition aircraft. Our
current fleet of aging tankers met the challenges of OEF and OIF but is
increasingly expensive to maintain. The fleet averages more then 40
years of age, and the oldest model, the KC-135E, goes back to the
Eisenhower Administration. Recapitalization for this fleet of over 540
aerial refueling aircraft will clearly take decades to complete and is
vital to the foundation and global reach of our Air Force, sister
services, and coalition partners. The Air Force is committed to an
acquisition approach for this program that will recapitalize the fleet
in the most affordable manner possible.
Capabilities-driven modernization and recapitalization efforts are
also taking place on our space systems, as we replace constellations of
satellites and ground systems with next generation capabilities. The
Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle has completed six successful
launches. Using two launch designs, we will continue to seek
responsive, assured access to space for government systems. Space-Based
Radar will provide a complementary capability to our portfolio of radar
and remote sensing systems. We will employ internet protocol networks
and high-bandwidth lasers in space to transform communications with the
Transformational Satellite, dramatically increasing connectivity to the
warfighter. Modernization of GPS and development of the next-generation
GPS III will enhance navigation capability and increase our resistance
to jamming. In partnership with NASA and the Department of Commerce, we
are developing the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental
Satellite System, which offers next-generation meteorological
capability. Each of these systems supports critical C\4\ISR
capabilities that give the JFC increased technological and asymmetric
advantages.
Space control efforts, enabled by robust space situation awareness,
will ensure unhampered access to space-based services. Enhanced space
situation awareness assets will provide the information necessary to
execute an effective space control strategy. However, we must be
prepared to deprive an adversary of the benefits of space capabilities
when American interests and lives are at stake.
Additional capability does not stem solely from new weapon system
acquisitions. It results from innovative modernization of our existing
systems. One example is incorporating a Smart Bomb Rack Assembly and
the 500 lb. version of the Joint Direct Attack Munition into the
weapons bay of the B-2. In September of 2003, we demonstrated that the
B-2 bomber is now able to release up to 80 separately targeted, GPS-
guided weapons in a single mission. This kind of innovation reduces the
number of platforms that must penetrate enemy airspace while holding
numerous enemy targets at risk. The second order consequences run the
gamut from maintenance to support aircraft.
We will also address the deficiencies in our infrastructure through
modernization and recapitalization. Improvements to our air and space
systems will be limited without improvements in our foundational
support systems. Deteriorated airfields, hangars, waterlines,
electrical networks, and air traffic control approach and landing
systems are just some of the infrastructure elements needing immediate
attention. Our investment strategy focuses on three simultaneous steps:
disposing of excess facilities; sustaining our facilities and
infrastructure; and establishing a sustainable investment program for
future modernization of our facilities and infrastructure.
Finally, we need to continue to modernize and recapitalize our
information technology infrastructure. To leverage our information
superiority, the Air Force is pursuing a modernization strategy and
information technology investments, which target a common network
infrastructure and employ enterprise services and shared capabilities.
Science and Technology (S&T)
Our investment in science and technology has and continues to
underpin our modernization and recapitalization program. Similar to our
applied-technology acquisition efforts, the Air Force's capability-
based focus produces an S&T vision that supports the warfighter.
The Air Force S&T program fosters development of joint warfighting
capabilities and integrated technologies, consistent with DOD and
national priorities. We will provide a long-term, stable investment in
S&T in areas that will immediately benefit existing systems and in
transformational technologies that will improve tomorrow's Air Force.
Many Air Force S&T programs, such as directed energy, hypersonics,
laser-based communications, and the emerging field of nanotechnology,
show promise for joint warfighting capabilities. Other technology
areas, such as miniaturization of space platforms and space proximity
operations, also show promise in the future. Through developments like
these, the Air Force S&T program will advance joint warfighting
capabilities and the Air Force vision of an integrated air and space
force capable of responsive and decisive global engagement.
Capabilities-Based Acquisition/Transforming Business Practices
To achieve our vision of a flexible, responsive, and capabilities-
based expeditionary force, we are transforming how we conceive, plan,
develop, acquire, and sustain weapons systems. Our Agile Acquisition
initiative emphasizes speed and credibility; we must deliver what we
promise--on time and on budget. Our goal is to deliver affordable,
sustainable capabilities that meet joint warfighters' operational
needs.
We continue to improve our acquisition system--breaking down
organizational barriers, changing work culture through aggressive
training, and reforming processes with policies that encourage
innovation and collaboration.
Already, we are:
--Realigning our Program Executive Officers (PEOs).--By moving our
PEOs out of Washington and making them commanders of our
product centers, we have aligned both acquisition
accountability and resources under our most experienced general
officers and acquisition professionals.
--Creating a culture of innovation.--Because people drive the success
of our Agile Acquisition initiatives, we will focus on enhanced
training. Laying the foundation for change, this past year
16,500 Air Force acquisition professionals, and hundreds of
personnel from other disciplines, attended training sessions
underscoring the need for collaboration, innovation, reasonable
risk management, and a sense of urgency in our approach.
--Reducing Total Ownership Costs.--With strong support from the
Secretary of Defense, we will expand the Reduction in Total
Ownership Cost program with a standard model ensuring that we
have accurate metrics.
--Moving technology from the lab to the warfighter quickly.--
Laboratories must focus on warfighter requirements and
researchers need to ensure technologies are mature, producible,
and supportable. Warfighters will work with scientists,
acquisition experts, and major commands to identify gaps in
capabilities. With help from Congress, we have matured our
combat capability document process to fill those gaps. During
OIF, we approved 37 requests for critically needed systems,
usually in a matter of days.
--Tailoring acquisition methods for space systems.--In October 2003,
we issued a new acquisition policy for space systems that will
improve acquisitions by tailoring acquisition procedures to the
unique demands of space systems.
Transformation of our business processes is not limited to
acquisition activities. Our Depot Maintenance Strategy and Master Plan
calls for financial and infrastructure capitalization to ensure Air
Force hardware is safe and ready to operate across the threat spectrum.
Our increased funding for depot facilities and equipment modernization
in fiscal year 2004-09, along with public-private partnerships, will
result in more responsive support to the JFC. We expect to maximize
production and throughput of weapon systems and commodities that will
improve mission capability.
Our logistics transformation initiative will revolutionize
logistics processes to improve warfighter support and reduce costs. The
goal of the Air Force's logistics transformation program, Expeditionary
Logistics for the 21st Century, is to increase weapon system
availability by 20 percent with zero cost growth. Our current
initiatives--depot maintenance transformation, purchasing and supply
chain management, regionalized intermediate repair, and improved
logistics command and control--will transform the entire logistics
enterprise.
Our depots have put some of these initiatives into place with
exceptional results. In fiscal year 2003, our depot maintenance teams
were more productive than planned, exceeding aircraft, engine, and
commodity production goals and reducing flow days in nearly all areas.
Implementation of ``lean'' production processes, optimized use of the
existing workforce, and appropriate funding, all contributed to this
good news story. In addition, our spares support to the warfighter is
at record high numbers. In 2003, supply rates and cannibalization rates
achieved their best performance since fiscal year 1994 and fiscal year
1995, respectively. Fourteen of twenty aircraft design systems improved
their mission capable rates over the previous year, with Predator
unmanned aerial vehicles improving by 11 percent, and B-1 bombers
achieving the best mission capable and supply rates in its history.
Thanks to proper funding, fleet consolidation, and transformation
initiatives, spare parts shortages were reduced to the lowest levels
recorded across the entire fleet.
Financing the Fight
An operating strategy is only as good as its financing strategy.
And similar to acquisition, logistics, and other support processes, our
finance capabilities are strong. We are taking deliberate and
aggressive steps to upgrade our financial decision support capability
and reduce the cost of delivering financial services. Our focus is on
support to our airmen, strategic resourcing and cost management, and
information reliability and integration. The initiatives that will get
us there include self-service web-based pay and personnel customer
service, seamless e-commerce for our vendor payment environment,
budgets that link planning, programming, and execution to capabilities
and performance, financial statements that produce clean audit opinions
while providing reliable financial and management information, and
innovative financing strategies.
integrating operations
The Air Force excels at providing communications, intelligence, air
mobility, precision strike, and space capabilities that enable joint
operations. Our airmen integrate these and other capabilities into a
cohesive system that creates war-winning effects. Integration takes
place at three levels. At the joint strategic level, integration occurs
between interagencies and the coalition. Integration also takes place
within the Air Force at an organizational level. At its most basic
level, integration takes place at the machine-to-machine level to
achieve universal information sharing which facilitates true
integration at every level.
Integrating Joint, Coalition, and Interagency Operations
The ever-changing dynamics of global events will drive the need to
integrate DOD and interagency capabilities and, in most cases, those of
our coalition partners. Joint solutions are required to produce
warfighting effects with the speed that the Global War on Terrorism
demands. Fully integrated operations employ only the right forces and
capabilities necessary to achieve an objective in the most efficient
manner. We must also integrate space capabilities for national
intelligence and warfighting.
We are pursuing adaptations of our C\2\ organizations and
capabilities to support this vision. While the Air Force's global C\2\
structure has remained relatively constant, throughout our 57-year
history, the demands of a changing geopolitical environment have
stressed current C\2\ elements beyond their design limits.
We have conducted an extensive review of our C\2\ structures to
support the National Security Strategy objectives of assure, dissuade,
deter, and defeat as well as the SECDEF's Unified Command Plan. We will
enhance our support for the JFC and our expeditionary posture through a
new Warfighting Headquarters Construct. This will enable the Numbered
Air Forces to support Unified Combatant Commanders in a habitual
supported-supporting relationship. Working with their strategy and
planning cells on a daily basis will ensure that Air Force capabilities
are available to the JFC's warfighting staff. This new headquarters
will provide the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) with sufficient
staff to focus on planning and employment of air, space, and
information operations throughout the theater.
We are also adapting the capabilities of our CAOCs. The CAOCs of
each headquarters will be interconnected with the theater CAOCs, all
operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They will be operated as a
weapons system, certified and standardized, and have cognizance of the
entire air and space picture. This reorganization will increase our
ability to support our Combatant Commanders, reduce redundancies, and
deliver precise effects to the warfighters. As we near completion of
the concept development, we will work with the Secretary of Defense and
the Congress to implement a more streamlined and responsive C\2\
component for the Combatant Commanders and national leadership.
Integrated operations also depend on integrated training. We
continue to advance joint and combined interoperability training with
our sister services and the nations with which we participate in global
operations. The Joint National Training Capability (JNTC) will improve
our opportunities for joint training. The aim of the JNTC is to improve
each service's ability to work with other services at the tactical
level and to improve joint planning and execution at the operational
and strategic levels. The Air Force has integrated live, virtual, and
constructive training environments into a single training realm using a
distributed mission operations (DMO) capability. JNTC will use this DMO
capability to tie live training events with virtual (man-in-the-loop)
play and constructive simulations. Live training in 2004--on our ranges
during four Service-conducted major training events--will benefit from
improved instrumentation and links to other ranges as well as the
ability to supplement live training with virtual or constructive
options. These types of integrated training operations reduce overall
costs to the services while providing us yet another avenue to train
like we fight.
Integrating Within the Air Force
The Air Force is continuing to strengthen and refine our AEF. The
AEF enables rapid build-up and redeployment of air and space power
without a lapse in the Air Force's ability to support a Combatant
Commander's operations. The Air Force provides forces to Combatant
Commanders according the AEF Presence Policy (AEFPP), the Air Force
portion of DOD's Joint Presence Policy. There are ten AEFs, and each
AEF provides a portfolio of capabilities and force modules. At any
given time, two AEFs are postured to immediately provide these
capabilities. The other eight are in various stages of rest, training,
spin-up, or standby. The AEF is how the Air Force organizes, trains,
equips, and sustains responsive air and space forces to meet defense
strategy requirements outlined in the Strategic Planning Guidance.
Within the AEF, Air Force forces are organized and presented to
Combatant Commanders as Air and Space Expeditionary Task Forces
(AETFs). They are sized to meet the Combatant Commander's requirements
and may be provided in one of three forms: as an Air Expeditionary Wing
(AEW), Group (AEG), and/or Squadron (AES). An AETF may consist of a
single AEW or AEG, or may consist of multiple AEWs or AEGs and/or as a
Numbered Expeditionary Air Force. AETFs provide the functional
capabilities (weapon systems, expeditionary combat support and command
and control) to achieve desired effects in an integrated joint
operational environment.
One of our distinctive Air Force capabilities is Agile Combat
Support (ACS.) To provide this capability, our expeditionary combat
support forces--medics, logisticians, engineers, communicators,
Security Forces, Services, and Contracting, among several others--
provide a base support system that is highly mobile, flexible, and
fully integrated with air and space operations. ACS ensures responsive
expeditionary support to joint operations is achievable within resource
constraints--from creation of operating locations to provision of
right-sized forces. An example of this capability is the 86th
Contingency Response Group (CRG) at Ramstein Air Base, organized,
trained, and equipped to provide an initial ``Open the Base'' force
module to meet Combatant Commander requirements. The CRG provides a
rapid response team to assess operating location suitability and
defines combat support capabilities needed to establish air
expeditionary force operating locations.
Another example of ACS capability is the light and lean
Expeditionary Medical System (EMEDS) that provides the U.S. military's
farthest forward care and surgical capability. Air Force medics jump
into the fight alongside the very first combatants. Whether supporting
the opening of an air base or performing life saving surgeries, these
medics bring an extraordinary capability. They carry backpacks with
reinforced medical equipment, permitting them to perform medical
operations within minutes of their boots hitting the ground.
Complementing this expeditionary medical capability is our air
evacuation system that provides the lifeline for those injured
personnel not able to return to duty. The other services and our allies
benefited greatly from this capability in OEF and OIF. The Army and
Navy are now developing a similar light and lean capability. The
success of EMEDS is also apparent in the reduction of disease and non-
battle injuries--the lowest ever in combat.
Horizontal Machine-to-Machine Integration
We also strive to increasingly integrate operations at the most
basic level--electron to electron. Victory belongs to those who can
collect intelligence, communicate information, and bring capabilities
to bear first. Executing these complex tasks with accuracy, speed, and
power requires assured access and the seamless, horizontal integration
of systems, activities and expertise across all manned, unmanned, and
space capabilities. Such integration will dramatically shorten the kill
chain.
Machine-to-machine integration means giving the warfighter the
right information at the right time. It facilitates the exchange of
large amounts of information, providing every machine the information
it needs about the battlespace and an ability to share that
information. In the future, we will significantly reduce the persistent
challenges of having different perspectives or pictures of the
battlefield. Examples would be to ensure that the A-10 could see the
same target as the Predator or to guarantee that the F-15 has the same
intelligence about enemy radars as the Rivet Joint.
We want a system where information is made available and delivered
without regard to the source of the information, who analyzed the
information, or who disseminated the information. It is the end product
that is important, not the fingers that touch it. The culmination of
the effort is the cursor over the target. It is an effect we seek, and
what we will provide.
The warfighters' future success will depend on Predictive
Battlespace Awareness (PBA). PBA relies on in-depth study of an
adversary before hostilities begin in order to anticipate his actions
to the maximum extent possible. We can then analyze information to
assess current conditions, exploit opportunities, anticipate future
actions, and act with a degree of speed and certainty unmatched by our
adversaries. PBA also relies on the ability of air and space systems to
integrate information at the machine-to-machine level and produce high-
fidelity intelligence that results in a cursor over the target. The
result--integrated operations--is our unique ability to conduct PBA and
impact the target at the time and place of our choosing. This machine-
to-machine integration will include a constellation of sensors that
create a network of information providing joint warfighters the
information and continuity to see first, understand first, and act
first.
The C\2\ Constellation is the Air Force capstone concept for
achieving the integration of air and space operations. Our vision of
the C\2\ Constellation is a robust, protected network infrastructure, a
globally based command and control system to encompass all levels of
the battle and allow machines to do the integration and fusion. It uses
Battle Management Command and Control and Connectivity and consists of
command centers, sensors, and systems like the U-2, Space Based Radar,
the Distributed Common Ground System, and our CAOCs. Given the C\2\
Constellation's complexity, the Air Force recognizes the need for an
architecture to address myriad integration issues--methodically--so all
elements work in concert.
securing america's next horizon
Armed with the heritage of air and space power in combat, the
lessons learned from our most recent conflicts, and the powerful
advances in technology in the 21st century, we stand ready to deliver
decisive air and space power in support of our nation. Whether called
to execute a commanding show of force, to enable the joint fight, to
deliver humanitarian assistance, or to protect our nation from the
scourge of terrorism, we will deliver the effects required. Our ability
to consistently answer the call is our dividend to the nation, a result
of our sustained investment in people, technology, and integration.
Our portfolio of advantages provides dividends on the battlefield.
We bring to bear a diversified collection of capabilities, which answer
the needs of a spectrum of combat and humanitarian operations. As one
would with any investment, we will monitor, maintain, and adjust our
investments as needed to reflect the demands of a dynamic environment.
Transformational initiatives in the way we organize, train, and equip
reflect such adjustments, changes that will result in significant gains
for our force, for the joint team, and for our nation. Yet, we will not
shift our focus from the core competencies that have provided the
foundation for our success and continue to do so. The success of the
Air Force resides in the airmen who employ the technology of
warfighting through integrated operations with our joint and coalition
partners. This is our heritage and our future. This is America's Air
Force.
STATEMENT OF GENERAL JOHN P. JUMPER
Senator Stevens. General Jumper.
General Jumper. Well, I would like to make a statement. Mr.
Chairman, Senator Inouye, members of the committee, thank you
for the opportunity to sit here. It's a pleasure to sit here
with Dr. Roche and to work for a boss who spends so much energy
caring for our people and helping us all make sure that we do
the right thing as an Air Force for our Nation.
I'd also like to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of
the committee, who take the time to go out and see our airmen,
soldiers, sailors, and marines personally throughout the world
when they are deployed. It's one thing for me to go out there
and tell them how important they are. It's much more effective
when we have the representatives of the people go out and send
that message. I cannot tell you how important that is, and I
thank you, sir, for your efforts to do that. I've watched you,
Mr. Chairman and Senator Inouye, for many years, and I know
that wherever there's a crisis, you all show up, and usually
together, and it's a very powerful message that you send.
AEROSPACE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
Sir, the Air Force, over the last 10 years, has recreated
itself from a contingent--from a cold war operation coming out
of the cold war years into a contingency-based operation that
we work with our Aerospace Expeditionary Forces (AEF). We have
10 Aerospace Expeditionary Force packages that we actually used
for the first time in 1999 in the air war over Serbia. But to
prosecute Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi
Freedom, we had to call 8 of 10 of these packages forward in
order to completely deal with the situation.
We opened 36 bases in the process of this. Sixteen of those
bases continue to be open today. At the height of operations,
we had over 72,000 American troops and Coalition partners
living in Air Force tents throughout the ADR. Today, that
number is about 17,000 at bases where we have support
responsibilities. We continue to engage across the spectrum of
conflict, as you know, from the counter-drug mission to
patrolling the skies over America, to those deployed operations
that I mentioned.
We are now in the process of reconstituting our force. It
will take some time to get us completely reconstituted, but,
just this month, we've started back in a normal rotation cycle
with most of our people, even as we have two-plus AEF packages
still deployed forward, dealing with the Operation Iraqi
Freedom.
Sir, even though you know that our AEF packages are serving
us well, we can't do this, any of it, without a Total Force and
a joint team effort. Secretary Rumsfeld has challenged us to
make sure that everyone we have in uniform is doing the job
that's required of someone in uniform. I can report to you,
sir, that daily, 47 percent of our active-duty force is
committed directly to the mission of the combatant commanders
throughout the world. As you know, we're still flying 150
sorties a day over Iraq, and some 50 sorties a day over
Afghanistan, to include mobility sorties, strike sorties, air-
refueling sorties, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance,
and close air-support missions.
For our mobility forces, the tempo remains about 50 percent
above the pre-9/11 activity. We owe the success of these
mobility missions to the great contribution that we get out of
our Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. They make up more
than 50 percent of this mission-area capability.
In the skies--or in the Aerospace Expeditionary Force
packages that we deploy, each one of those packages consists of
20 to 25 percent of the Air National Guard or the Air Force
Reserve. We put our Total Force to good use, and it works for
us very well. In Operation Noble Eagle, patrolling the skies
over the United States, which we've been doing now for 2\1/2\
years, over 80 percent of that effort is borne by the Air
National Guard or the Air Force Reserves.
GUARD AND RESERVE
Since 9/11, we have mobilized some 36 percent of our total
Guard and Reserve. Today, about 6 percent remain activated,
mobilized, and serving throughout the world. We integrate the
Guard and Reserve with our daily activity, as the boss
mentioned--with blended wings. We have the 116th Air Control
Wing at Robins Air Force Base, which is our JOINTSTARS unit,
that is a combination of Air National Guard and Active Duty Air
Force in the same unit. The command of that unit rotates.
Today, it happens to be commanded by an Air National Guard
officer. This is working very well, although we still have work
to do in trying to get the laws synchronized that will allow us
to have common judicial standards and other standards. We will
continue to work with you to get that achieved.
Again, I want to thank the employers of our Nation who
allow these Guard and Reserve members to come on active duty
and to deploy. They, too, serve, because they give up probably
the most capable part of their work force to come on active
duty, put on the uniform and deploy, and they do a magnificent
job for us. So we are very grateful to the employers in all the
States who allow this to happen.
As we look to the future, I worry about capabilities that
we have to deal with. Secretary Roche spoke of the F/A-22,
which is going to be necessary as we look forward to the threat
of cruise missiles, as we look forward to new generations of
surface-to-air missiles that in some places of the world are
being deployed today, as we look at a new generation of fighter
aircraft, such as the Su-37.
Mr. Chairman, today we brought along three members that
belong to you, sir. These are members of the fighter wing in
Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, and I'll ask them to
stand, Colonel Greg Neubeck, Captain Mark Snowden, and Captain
Pete Fesler. These three gentlemen are F-15 pilots. They have
just returned from an exercise in a country we haven't
exercised with for some years, and they were able to fly their
F-15s against some of these new fighters that we talk about. We
can't discuss it here today, but in closed session I'd enjoy
the opportunity at some point in the future to come and talk to
you about the results of their trip. I think you would find the
information very revealing. The Secretary and I are proud to
bring along these three great young Americans who serve this
country so well. Thanks, guys.
Senator Stevens. Welcome gentlemen, and thank you, General.
They obviously come from the top of the world and have a very
fine home.
General Jumper. Yes, sir.
Senator Stevens. I'm going to have to ask you, General, if
you can summarize pretty quickly. I've got to tell you that we
have a vote starting at 10:30. We'll stay here until--or
11:30----
RECRUITING AND RETENTION
General Jumper [continuing]. I will do that, Mr. Chairman.
Let me just say that as far as our retention and
recruiting, we're meeting all of our goals, not only in the
active, but in the Guard and Reserve, and it's truly a great
Air Force team.
Sir, I appreciate the opportunity to sit before you here
today, and I look forward to your questions.
Senator Stevens. Thank you very much.
We do thank you very much. And those are wonderful
statements.
Gentlemen, because of the timeframe--I've discussed this
with Senator Inouye--we'll take 5 minutes each, and then we'll
see what questions we might have in the second round. We'd urge
you to keep your responses as short as possible.
TANKERS
I congratulate you, Secretary Roche, in being willing to
talk about the tankers. We all have, you know, sort of, lash
marks across our back because of the fact we tried to
accelerate the IOC for those tankers. What is the IOC going to
be under the current situation?
Dr. Roche. IOC, I don't have it exact in my head. The first
one will show up--if we do the normal KCX, the first one won't
show up until 2010, so it'll be a few years after that before
we have IOC. Had we been able to effect release in the first
year that it was made available to us by the Congress, we would
have had something like 80 planes available by 2010, and we
would have had IOC.
Senator Stevens. And the average age is somewhere about 43
years today----
Dr. Roche. Forty-three years. And, remember, the Secretary
of Defense has the program in a pause, so it's not that we've
rejected the lease that the Congress agreed to last time; it's
in a pause.
Senator Stevens. Well, the net result is, we delay the IOC,
and we engender the growth of foreign-constructed tankers to
meet our needs. I think that we will have done a disservice to
this country. I hope that--pray to God that we'll solve this
problem soon. It is just a jurisdictional fight between Members
of the Senate, as far as I'm concerned. But I do think that
you've taken too much heat on the subject.
SPACE PROGRAMS
Let me go to the basic problem of this budget, as I see it.
You've got budget requests for three Air Force space programs,
transformational communications, the Evolved Expendable Launch
Vehicle (EELV) launch--space launch--space-based radar more
than doubles in fiscal year 2005. Those programs alone would
grow about additional 30 percent by 2006, and we plan to go
ahead and move into full-rate production of the F/A-22. Can all
those programs survive under the trend line of the budget
today?
Dr. Roche. We have not been optimistic about the trend line
and it is one of the reasons that I brought down the production
rate from 22 to 32 per year, instead of going up to 56. I did
this in order to smooth things out so we could address other
subjects.
The space programs of the United States are old, sir. They,
too, need to be recapitalized. We don't talk about them as
often as we probably should. A number of those systems have
done very well because they have just been built so
beautifully, but they need to be recapitalized. Space-based
radar, as a part of a portfolio of sensors that can be used for
intelligence and for tactical operations, is a necessary thing.
We believe that, as we see our budget, we can smooth these in.
Yes, sir.
F/A-22
Senator Stevens. What's the IOC now for the F/A-22?
Dr. Roche. It should be the end of calendar year 2005, sir.
Senator Stevens. Someone asked me the other day why we're
building the F/A-22. What's the threat?
Dr. Roche. I would like to meet in a closed session and
tell you about some of the new aircraft, but certainly there
are existing surface-to-air missile systems now that, if not
dealt with by something like the F/A-22, will deny airspace to
us for land operations, for any other support operations. There
are emerging threats, like cruise missile threats, that only
the F/A-22 can handle because of its super-cruise. Its
capabilities are such that it replaces a number of other
aircraft. We will become far more efficient in the use of our
airmen by having far more capable airplanes. We'll have fewer
of them, but we'll be able to use the crews much more often. So
it's a combination of the threat, the efficiency, and the move
into new technology, which enables you to not have to spend the
kind of funds we have to spend now on maintenance, the fact
that our F-15 fleet is roughly 22-plus years old, and the F-
15Es are the young part of that. We have flight restrictions on
some of our F-15Cs because of some problems in the vertical
stabilizers.
Senator Stevens. Well, I thank you. This committee did save
the C-17. We saved the Predator. We saved the V-22. And as far
as I'm concerned, we're going to save the F-22.
Senator Inouye?
Senator Inouye. Mr. Chairman, I concur with you.
Mr. Secretary, on the F/A-22, about 20 months ago, you
added a new, robust air-to-ground capability. And, as such, the
Secretary of Defense suggested that the cost could go up by
$11.7 billion over a 10-year period. Has that been factored
into the budget?
Dr. Roche. Sir, the Secretary of Defense didn't do it; it
was the General Accounting Office, if I'm not mistaken, Senator
Inouye. They took an honest-to-goodness wish list from our Air
Combat Command that goes until the plane is dead. Now, we're
going to keep this plane for 30 years, so there will be things
that one might think of doing 20 years into the future. The
work that we are doing to make--to enhance the capability of
this airplane for air to ground--it already has some
capabilities--will actually, in some cases, save money. We'll
put a new radar on that's 40 percent cheaper than the existing
radar. We'll incorporate the smaller-diameter bomb, which will
be done for lots of other reasons. So the amount of money that
we have planned that we will actually spend is budgeted, and is
less than $3.5 billion, and that's for all the aircraft that
come after it.
Now, just as a comparison, sir, over the same FYDP period
we'll invest $2.5 billion in just doing upgrades to the B-2
bomber. There are only 21 of them.
Senator Inouye. Has the change made the full-rate
production decision a little later now? You were going to do it
in December 2004.
Dr. Roche. The full production decision for the F/A-22,
sir, will be, again, a function of how well we do in initial
operational test and evaluation (IOT&E). We have worked out
every problem we can think of. We have issues associated with
IOT&E sortie generation and meantime between maintenance hours
that are really an attempt to interpolate from what our
measures after 100,000 hours of flight (which won't happen
until 2008) to what they ought to be today. We believe that,
barring something we can't see now, we should enter IOT&E at
the end of April. That's in 2004. The full-rate production
decision would be at some point thereafter; again, it will be
event driven. But we are ramping up slowly, with your help. We
went to 20 airplanes, 22 airplanes; this budget, 24 airplanes,
to get to 32 without incurring additional cost by rushing.
BOEING CORPORATION
Senator Inouye. As a result of certain alleged incidents by
Boeing employees, Senator Rudman was asked to conduct an
investigation, and, as a result of that, he said that despite
problems that have occurred, ``We believe it would be both
unfair and incorrect to conclude that the company treats ethics
and compliance matters lightly.'' And then he further went on
to say that, ``Boeing programs are robust and confirm that the
company pays significant attention to ethics and compliance
matters.''
Have these results or findings had any impact on the
progression of replacing the tanker fleet?
Dr. Roche. I'm certain that they've been an input to the
Inspector General's review. There is an Inspector General
review. There's also a Defense Science Board look, across the
board. There's a group from the Industrial College of the Armed
Forces who were looking at, ``How innovative was our approach?
And what lessons are to be learned?'' We, clearly, can't take
action based on Senator Rudman's report, but I know that that
has been an input to the Inspector General's thinking.
END STRENGTH
Senator Inouye. I believe you're planning to downsize your
force end strength. How do you propose to do that?
Dr. Roche. We are, at this point, Senator, a little under,
sir--about 16,000 over and above our end strength, and it is--
we're suffering from riches, Senator. We just took stop-loss
off last July. We had anticipated that our airmen would return
to the normal sequence, which is: we lose 37,000 a year, we
recruit 37,000 a year. With a lot that you have done, in terms
of benefits, 100 percent housing, a whole series of things, we
are exceeding our retention rates, we have pilots coming back,
and we finished 40 percent of our recruiting for this fiscal
year last year. So we're having to see if some of our airmen
would like to transition earlier into the Guard and Reserve, to
get on with, maybe, their academic life. We are trying to not
lose faith with any of these men and women who have had faith
in us, but they like serving our Air Force, and there is a
sense of esprit that I know you've seen when you've dealt with
them over in the Area of Responsibility (AOR). They have a
sense of self worth, that they're doing something terribly
important, and they want to stay. We're trying to adjust this
so maybe we can have more of them migrate to our Guard and
Reserve.
John?
General Jumper. Senator, we do not want to kick anybody out
of the Air Force that wants to stay. And we lived through--in
the late 1980s and early 1990s, we lived through involuntary
separations. It was destructive for the morale of the service.
We will ask your help to make sure that we don't have to kick
out anybody that doesn't want to go, even as we try to get down
to our authorized numbers as quickly as we can.
Thank you, sir.
Senator Inouye. Thank you very much.
Senator Stevens. Senator Dorgan.
Senator Dorgan. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
First, let me say to the Secretary that I'm really pleased
that you're not moving over to the Army. I know that was a long
and tortured period for you, but, frankly, I think you've done
a wonderful job, and I appreciate your commitment to the United
States Air Force and to this country's security.
BASE REALIGNMENT AND CLOSURE
Let me ask a question about base closing, if I might. The
base closing commission proposition that has everyone nervous,
I expect. And let me ask whether--as you understand it, whether
this base closing round is going to look at nearly every Air
Guard and Reserve facility. The reason I ask that question is,
in the 1995 background only a handful of Air Guard and Air
Force Reserve facilities were actually evaluated. What's your
impression of what will happen in this base closing commission
round?
Dr. Roche. We really believe in the Total Force. We would
like everyone to be looked at. We are doing it slightly
differently. We're doing it in accordance with the
congressional law and regulation, but we're starting out taking
that very seriously, in terms of what is the force structure we
expect to see around 2020-2025. Because we've always noted that
we'll be replacing 750 F-15-like aircraft with roughly 400 F/A-
22s. Our Air Force will be getting smaller. What are the
systems we think we'll need for the contingencies in the
future? What are those capabilities? Where are they best
deployed inside the United States? How much overseas basing
will we have to do? Just go through the capabilities. Then
we're going to look at things like ranges. As you know,
supersonic range is a critical to us. Other air ranges are
critical to us. Then keep working our way down, in terms of
what kinds of systems tend to be for the Atlantic-Pacific.
Which are swing systems? How do we deal with Operation Noble
Eagle?
We believe as we go through that, plus the work that's
being done by the joint staff of where is there commonality of
training, hospitals, other things, that the answer will start
to come out pretty obviously.
Guard is working on its own, doing some very innovative
thinking about how they can better integrate with the Active
Force, or complement it.
Senator Dorgan. As you know, my State houses two air bases,
one at Minot, one at Grand Forks--one B-52, one a tanker base--
as well as an Air Guard Base in Fargo.
Dr. Roche. And missiles.
B-52
Senator Dorgan. And missiles in the Minot base, as well--at
the Minot base. Let me ask you how you see the role for the B-
52 and also the role for the core tanker base as we move
forward.
Dr. Roche. I can't speak of any specific base with respect
to the systems.
Senator Dorgan. Yeah.
Dr. Roche. We see the B-52 as a system that we fly very
differently. We fly slower, higher. We picked 90 of the best of
the 700 that were built. These are the planes that did not
fight in Vietnam. Some of the tankers that were associated with
those B-52s are also in good shape, even though they're old,
and they would be the tankers we would expect to fly when
they're roughly 70 years old, even if we began recapitalizing
now. We see the B-52 having a future for the next, say, 10, 20
years. But we now are looking at how to replace the platform.
Senator Dorgan. Well, the B-52 is estimated to be out 30
years, is it not?
Dr. Roche. It is, and we'll track both the costs of it and
how many we'll use, how many we'll use for standoff jammers.
But bomber capabilities are located where they are in the
United States for very good reasons; it's because they swing.
Originally, the northern States had them, because we went over
the top.
B-2
Now we've found that when we place the B-2, it is wise to
put a bomber facility in the center of the United States so it
can swing to the Atlantic or the Pacific. For example, Dyess
Air Force Base in Texas, just to name one that's not in your
State, sir, needs ranges nearby. These are important things for
us to take into account as we look at placement.
TANKER FLEET
Senator Dorgan. Will your ability to maintain the tanker
fleet be substantially affected by the 767 issues?
Dr. Roche. We think that we will not replace the full 550
KC-135s with 550 new wide-body tankers. We'd like to--it may
not all be 767s by the time you go over 20-so years to do it,
but it'll still be, we think, something above 400, sir.
GLOBAL HAWK
Senator Dorgan. And have you--when will you describe a
basing plan for the Global Hawk, the full contingent of Global
Hawks?
Dr. Roche. Right now--you remember, in Iraq our Global Hawk
fleet consisted of one airplane.
General Jumper. That's correct.
Dr. Roche. And as these come in, we will be trying to do
that. We have been showing the members as many of our roadmaps
as we have finished. So we've shown a tanker roadmap, we've
shown a C-130 roadmap, lifter roadmap. We would continue to do
that, to share our thinking early with various members.
In terms of Global Hawk, right now, Beale Air Force Base is
the right place for them to be, because of their closely
associated mission with the U-2. Over time, as we use these--
and there will be other remotely-piloted aircraft, the UAVs--we
will be picking locations for them.
F/A-22
Senator Dorgan. Mr. Chairman, let me make one additional
comment. First of all, I agree with the Chairman's comment
about the F/A-22. I think that's a critically important weapons
program for us to maintain air superiority long into the
future. I think Global Hawk and Predator programs have been
extraordinarily valuable, and I would commend the Air Force and
the men and women who run those systems.
BASE REALIGNMENT AND CLOSURE (BRAC)
And then I finally want to say, again, many of us are very,
very nervous about this base closing commission process. I
looked to the report that was issued today by the Pentagon.
It's very hard for us to quite understand exactly where the
magnifying glass is placed here, but we've got some great
bases. And I'm not altogether sure, having watched the Pentagon
plan in the long term, that we know what's going to happen 5
and 10 years from now with respect to our needs. And to be
talking about a commission that sizes the military for 20
years, I'm not all that convinced that we ought to move as
aggressively as you think, Mr. Secretary, and others in the
Pentagon think. But, you know, again, I think we'll work
through that, and I appreciate very much your appearance here
today.
Dr. Roche. Thank you for your thoughts. I would say we are
trying to factor in the fact that we cannot predict the future.
So we're trying to hedge, and we're trying to hedge in many
ways.
Senator Stevens. Senator Leahy.
Senator Leahy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Before this started, I had a chance to talk with the
Secretary and General Jumper before the hearing, and, it's
interesting, we were referencing back to the Secretary's time
when he was here with ``Scoop'' Jackson. I'm looking around the
committee. You and I and Senator Inouye and, I believe, Senator
Cochran all served here when Senator Jackson was here. He was
one of the giants, the real giants, of the Senate, and one who
did, as you do, Mr. Chairman, formed those bipartisan
coalitions that are so very, very necessary in these defense
bills. And I mean that as a compliment to both you and Senator
Jackson and, of course, to Secretary Roche, who's tried the
same way; I think one of the reasons why the Air Force is doing
so well and why it has such support up here. I've also had some
of these discussions with General Jumper, and we--our
discussions have ranged everywhere from what it's like growing
up in small-town America to where the Air Force is going to be
well into the 21st century with the kind of threats and the
unpredictability--as you said, Mr. Secretary, the
unpredictability of the future.
General Jumper, if I might--this is probably one of those
rare times that a parochial question has ever come out from a
member of the Appropriations Committee, but I am the co-chair
of the U.S. Senate National Guard Caucus, along with Senator
Kit Bond of Missouri, and we have close to 90 Members of the
Senate, most of the Senate. We strongly support your effort to
transform the Guard's and the entire Air Force capability to
meet the Nation's needs. I think, probably more than any time
since I've been in the Senate, we see the integration and the
need of using the Guard with our regular forces, certainly in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and being prepared in that second, third,
and fourth wave if we need it.
I talked with you about a proposal I've been working on
with the Air National Guard unit in my home State of Vermont,
the F-16 unit. This F-16 unit, Mr. Chairman, is the one that,
immediately after--now, by ``immediately,'' I mean immediately
after--the attack on New York City, in September 11, they were
flying cover, and flew cover for weeks on end, around the
clock, over New York City. Flying based out of Vermont, it
doesn't take them very long to get to New York City. And, of
course, you had tankers basically parked up there, and they
just ran around the clock.
Under our proposal, the Active Force would send many of its
pilots and maintenance personnel to the Vermont Guard for a
tour that would increase integration among the Guard and the
Active Force, allow the Active Force to take advantage of the
high level of experience we have up there. I understand it
would actually save money, in the long run. I'd also mention
that the Burlington area is a very nice place to live, having
lived there all my life--all my life, so far. It would be a
great retention tool. And I'm wondering, General, if you'd give
me an update of where this proposal stands in the Air Force.
GUARD AND RESERVE
General Jumper. Well, Senator Leahy, as you are aware, we
currently have a great number of initiatives going on with the
Guard and Reserve especially the Air National Guard, as the
Secretary mentioned. This notion of bringing active duty and
National Guard units together is working very well for us in
Georgia right now. It's only proper we also look at it the
other way not only consider bringing the Guard and Reserves to
the active units, but look at it the other way around. As we
also look at what makes sense with regard to consolidations of
units that are in close proximity to one another and other such
ideas that you're aware of that we're actively pursuing in the
Air Force.
So, sir, I think that this idea has merit. It is certainly
worth us considering and taking advantage of the great
opportunity to live in some of our cities around the world that
we don't normally have access to. So it's under consideration
right now, sir.
Senator Leahy. General, will you or your staff keep me
posted on how it goes? Because I want to--I really do have a
very strong interest in this, and not just from a parochial--I
go to bat for the Vermont Guard, because they do a superb job
there, always at the top level of preparedness, fitness, and
all the rest. And I would--I'm a typical enough Vermonter, I
wouldn't go to bat like that unless they were that good. I just
think it can work well. I also think that, from our--the east
coast still is a danger area. I'll put this--other questions in
the record for both of you.
But I'm just curious, is this in the budget?
General Jumper. Sir, this would--as far as I understand it,
it would have to be a part of a BRAC consideration to talk
about how we adjust forces if it's in any significant numbers.
But it's part of the overall consideration, under military
value, that we are dealing with, as part of that process.
Dr. Roche. If I may, sir, I think it's a legitimate----
Senator Stevens. The gentleman's time has expired.
Senator Leahy. Could I just hear his answer to just that
one question, Mr. Chairman?
Dr. Roche. Very briefly. The Guard is looking at a number
of innovative things, and they're all being listed. And General
``Danny'' James is doing a terrific job of working with his
colleagues to be part of the solution to this problem, not part
of the problem.
Senator Stevens. Senator Cochran.
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE
Senator Cochran. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
Mr. Secretary, General Jumper, I'm fresh back from a trip
to my State, where I had the pleasure of cutting a ribbon at
Columbus Air Force Base for a new facility, a radar approach
control facility, part of a control-tower facility, as well,
that will be ensuring that we'll have one of the most modern
training facilities for pilots in the country. We already are
very proud of the fact that, at Columbus, one-third of the Air
Force pilots are trained there. Over 468 during fiscal year
2003. And not long ago, we participated in a ceremony in
Jackson, where the Air National Guard received the first C-17,
and training is underway there. We're really proud of the fact
that that's occurring in our State, as well, and also that
Keesler Air Force Base continues to train, I guess, as many
people as any Air Force base training facility anywhere, 40,000
students each year. We have the largest medical facility,
medical group in the Air Force--is also located at Keesler Air
Force Base. So we're very interested in the Air Force's budget
request. We're very interested in your requirements and helping
make sure that this committee responds to your needs.
C-17
I think that it's very clear that you're embarking on some
important new modernization efforts. The C-17 is one example.
And we hope that--the procurement schedule, as I understand,
may be going up from your earlier expectations of your needs.
Could you tell us what your expectation of a procurement
schedule is for the C-17? Is your budget sufficient to give you
what you need?
Dr. Roche. Senator, we have this multi-year for 60 that
we're involved in at this time, and that will give us a total
of 180. There are two things that will drive the follow-on
decision. One is, the joint staff is looking at what the
mobility needs are for our Total Force--all Army, Navy, Air
Force, and Marines--to update what was done a number of years
ago, in terms of how much lift is required. They will finish
that at some point here in the not-too-distant future. That
will then feed into us, in terms of what we need to be able to
do in million ton miles per day (MTMS/DAY).
The second issue that we are attempting to resolve is
whether or not the C-5As can be modernized through the
Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP). We're
going to do it for all the B models, which are the newer C-5s.
We're going to do the avionics for all of the A models. And the
issue is, if the A's are in good enough shape to be able to
have service life extension, then that would then compensate.
If the number of MTMS/DAY required goes up, if the C-5As are
not worth investing in, then clearly the other thing we'd do is
get more C-17s. But this is in flux right now. We have an Air
Force Fleet Viability Board, which is independent, looking at
the A's, as we speak. We expect that report to come to John and
me by the end of April, end of the month. We'll start to then
get a sense of what the condition of the A's are. We're waiting
for U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) to finish with the
joint staff, its desires for lift. Then, from that, we'll come
and make a decision on the follow-on procurement. We have a few
years before we have to get to that.
GLOBAL HAWK
Senator Cochran. One other procurement item that you
mentioned was the Global Hawk. You said you were going to ask
for funds for four of those. That sounds like just a few. Do
you have any question about the effectiveness or the importance
of it in the recent Iraqi Operation?
Dr. Roche. It's four in the budget; it's 34 in the Future
Years Defense Plan (FYDP).
Senator Cochran. I see.
Dr. Roche. And, in fact, as we often point out, General
Tommy Franks was very kind to John and me. He allowed us to put
systems into Afghanistan that were really not ready for prime
time. We had a couple of Global Hawks, as you know, auger in.
We had a couple of Predators auger in. But we learned so much
that by the time Iraqi Freedom came, we had terrific
responsiveness from the Global Hawk. It's done beautifully, and
we anticipate it being part of our inventory for a great deal
of time.
AIRBORNE LASER
Senator Cochran. One of your defensive missile programs is
the airborne laser program; the primary mission, knocking down
ballistic missiles during the initial boost phase of flight,
and using, as I understand it, an Air Force platform for that
purpose. What is the status of that, and what is the outlook?
Do you have anything you can tell us about the progress being
made in that program?
Dr. Roche. John has had a personal interest for a long
time, and I'd like to let him answer.
General Jumper. Sir, we've purchased the first airplane
that will be the test bed for the laser, and the laser system's
scheduled to fire on the ground, I believe, by the end of this
year. Then it will be disassembled, put into the airplane, and
further tested.
There have been problems with the airplanes, or with the
system, as you can imagine, something this complex. When I talk
to the scientists and engineers that are dealing with this,
there is still great confidence that this thing is going to
work. So it's funded appropriately to complete the engineering,
to do the demonstrations, and to make sure that we are
successful in what we have done so far, and it will all revolve
around our ability to get a successful shot out of this thing
in the next year or so. So I'm very confident, and I appreciate
your interest in it.
Dr. Roche. And, as you know, it's in the Missile Defense
Agency's budget, it's not in ours, sir. We view it like uncles
looking at it. It's the experiment that ought to be done.
Senator Cochran. Yeah.
Dr. Roche. If it works, it's going to be fantastic.
Senator Cochran. Yeah.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Stevens. Senator Durbin.
Senator Durbin. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Secretary Roche, General Jumper, thank you for joining us
today, and thank you for your service to our country.
I'd like to ask you another parochial question, which you
can certainly expect from members of the panel from time to
time, and it's one of interest to me, as well as Speaker
Hastert, Congressman Costello, and Congressman Shimkus. In
fiscal year 2004, Congress provided $12.2 million to continue
the C-9 mission at Scott Air Force Base for an additional year
while a study was being completed on the mission of the 932nd
Airlift Wing. In January, that study was released, and
concluded that the men and women of the 932nd could meet the
increased operational support aircraft, (OSA), requirements of
the Air Force. And I know other studies are going on, but I
wanted to ask you what your plans are to meet OSA requirements
since the C-9As are scheduled to retire very soon, in fiscal
year 2005, and it appears that we've not provided any funding
to continue the mission. I know you have C-40s on your unfunded
requirements list, but what do you plan to do between now and
fiscal year 2007, when the C-40s reach----
Dr. Roche. I'll ask John to see if my memory is shaky on
this, Senator. We believe that the C-9's at Scott ought to be
retired. We'd like to flow the C-9C aircraft from Andrews to
Scott, and then backfill Andrews with new C-40s. That's the
plan. We'd like to be able to get that more defined over the
next couple of years.
We have found that the medical evacuation planes,
especially--we have so many other systems that do that well
that that's not the purpose, but we still need, in the center
of the country, the kind of capabilities that were contained in
the C-9 fleet at Scott, and we'd like to maintain it by flowing
aircraft to Scott from Andrews.
C-40S
Senator Durbin. Should you receive funding, how many C-40s
will you acquire, at what cost?
Dr. Roche. Oh, sir, may I get back to you----
Senator Durbin. Certainly.
Dr. Roche [continuing]. For the record?
[The information follows:]
Secretary of the Air Force,
Washington, May 10, 2004.
The Honorable Richard J. Durbin,
United States Senate,
Washington, DC 20510.
Dear Senator Durbin: Thank you for your continued support of the
United States Air Force and particularly the men and women of Scott Air
Force Base (AFB). During my testimony before the Defense Subcommittee
on March 23, 2004, you asked me to explain what the Air Force plan is
for Scott AFB once the C-9s leave.
The Air Force has identified a requirement for three C-40s at Scott
AFB IL on our fiscal year 2005 Unfunded Priority List. If funding were
appropriated for these aircraft, the Air Force Reserve Command's 932d
Airlift Wing, along with an Associate Active Duty unit, would operate
them. To facilitate a transition from the C-9A to the C-40, we have
developed a bridge plan using C-9Cs.
C-9As would remain at Scott until replaced with C-9Cs from Andrews
AFB MD. Beginning in fiscal year 2005 the Air Force will transfer C-9Cs
to Scott AFB. As a C-9C arrives at Scott, a C-9A would retire. The
intent is to continue to operate at least three C-9s until C-40Cs
arrive.
According to the plan, two C-40Cs would deliver in fiscal year 2007
and one in fiscal year 2008, though we will make every effort to
deliver the first C-40C in fiscal year 2006. As a C-40C arrives at
Scott, a C-9C would retire.
I trust this response clarifies our intent for C-40s and the 932 AW
mission. On behalf of the men and women of the Air Force, let me convey
my gratitude for your interest and support.
Sincerely,
James G. Roche.
Should the Air Force receive fiscal year 2005 funding it would
acquire three C-40C aircraft for Scott AFB, IL.
Total cost for purchasing and establishing the C-40C operation at
Scott follows. The cost includes sustaining the current C-9A operation
at Scott during fiscal year 2005.
[In millions of dollars]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal year
2005
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aircraft purchase (3xC-40C)............................. 225.0
C-9A Fiscal Year 2005 Sustainment....................... 8.3
C-40C Site Activation................................... 12.4
O&M..................................................... 3.8
MILCON.................................................. 6.0
---------------
Total............................................. 255.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Roche. I believe the number of planes is three, and
I'm----
General Jumper. We need to get back to you on that, sir.
Dr. Roche. Yes, sir.
Senator Durbin. That's fine.
When would the Air Force be able to assume the operation
and maintenance costs for those aircraft?
General Jumper. For the new C-40s?
Senator Durbin. Right.
General Jumper. Sir, I think that once we got them, we'd be
able to--it would probably be a part of a contract that would
come with the airplanes, and we'd be able to assume it right
away.
Dr. Roche. The beginning of it would be a warranty period.
There might be some----
General Jumper. Right.
Dr. Roche [continuing]. Some contract logistics support,
because we don't have a big fleet of these. Anything we have a
big fleet of, we have a strategy to migrate eventual
maintenance to our depots.
Senator Durbin. And I want to make sure--maybe you've
answered this, but I want to make certain I understand it--
where will the C-40s be stationed, and what unit will they be
assigned?
Dr. Roche. They will replace C-9Cs at Scott Air Force Base
assigned to the 932nd Airlift Wing.
Senator Durbin. C-40s at Andrews?
C-9AS
What is the bridge plan, since the C-9As will be retiring
soon?
Dr. Roche. To move planes from Andrews to Scott.
Senator Durbin. Do you know what the cost will be for
fiscal year 2005?
Dr. Roche. Sir, I'm sorry, not off the top of my head.
Senator Durbin. Are there any C-9Cs that are noise
compliant?
General Jumper. No, sir, there are not.
Senator Durbin. What will it take----
General Jumper. Sir----
Senator Durbin [continuing]. Will it take to make them----
General Jumper [continuing]. It's not only noise compliant,
it's compliant with all the avionics restrictions that are
coming down the road. I don't have a number, but it would be
huge. We can get you that number.
[The information follows:]
None of our C-9Cs are stage III noise compliant. The Air
Force plans to primarily use the C-9Cs for CONUS travel, where
hush kits are not currently required.
Based on the USMC experience with equipping their two C-9B
aircraft with hush kits, it would cost approximately $2.5
million per aircraft. The cost to equip the three C-9Cs and
spare engines ($2 million) is estimated at approximately $9.5
million.
Due to increase weight of the hush kits (approximately 300
lbs.), the C-9C will experience reduced range and/or reduced
capacity (cargo and passenger loads).
GUARD AND RESERVE
Senator Durbin. May I ask you another question? Because I
note that you're not only responsible for the active Air Force,
but have responsibilities for the Guard and Reserve. What are
your projections about recruitment and retention for Guard and
Reserve units, based on current activations?
Dr. Roche. Yes, sir. We're delighted to answer this one.
These are fabulous people. Only about 35 percent, or less, of
our Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve have been
mobilized in these conflicts. We have something like 6 percent
mobilized at this time. When we asked them about recruiting,
because we were worried, and we had a conscious plan after
Operation Enduring Freedom to make sure that our commands did
not hold on to guardmen and reservists more than they needed to
be. We said we had an ethical requirement to return these
colleagues back to their normal lives. We created the program
of thanking every single employer. We sent a pin, replicating
something that was done in World War II, to each employer to
say, ``Thank you for what you've done for these fighters.''
Their recruiting seems to be doing fine. Sometimes you
scratch your head and say these are people who are so dedicated
and so patriotic that they go through all kinds of family
disruptions in order to serve their country. They're truly
wonderful.
We are also trying to have our excessive active duty
members, who we can, migrate to the Guard and Reserve to
complete their obligated service, a program we call Palace
Chase, which we're thinking of expanding. So we very much worry
about the Guard and Reserve because we're so dependent on them.
General Jumper. Right now, sir, we're meeting 100 percent
of our goals in both Active, Guard, and Reserve, for both
recruiting and retention.
Senator Durbin. Mr. Chairman, I would just say, I'm glad to
hear that. That's great information. It says quite a lot about
the men and women serving us in the Guard and Reserve, as well
as our active duty. It is unfortunate, and I hope to change
soon, the fact that activated Guard and Reserve Federal
employees don't receive the same type of consideration from
their employer as many in the private sector.
Dr. Roche. And the States.
Senator Durbin. And States. Some States do, some don't.
But, clearly, we should set an example. Ten percent of the
Guard and Reserve in America are Federal employees, and, once
activated, they don't receive the same helping hand that many
private employers are providing activated Guard and Reserve.
Dr. Roche. It's a mixed bag, Senator. There are some
private employers, who, after 2 months, don't support. There
are others, who are very patriotic, who have borne the cost.
Every time I find one of them, I thank them. When I find a
particularly outrageous case of a private employer, I've been
known to pick up the phone and call the Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) and have a chat.
Senator Durbin. Oh, I'm glad you do. I just hope the
Federal Government will set an example. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Stevens. Thank you very much.
Gentlemen, we have 10 minutes left, and we're going to set
a clock for 3 minutes for each one of us to ask questions, if
you'll agree.
Let me just make a statement and ask one question. I'm told
that the tankers flew 6,193 tanking sorties in Iraq alone
during this past period, and that they've off-loaded over 417
million pounds of gas to be used in the ground vehicles. That
shows how critical those tankers are to us. And I do hope that
we can proceed further.
F/A-22
My question is, Is it possible, in this open session, to
talk about the sorties that have been flown by the F/A-22s,
sorties in this testing period, routinely against adversaries
like souped-up F-15s? Can you tell us what happened, and give
us a little description of that?
Dr. Roche. If I may, just put----
Senator Stevens. John, can you do that?
Dr. Roche. 12,000 tanker sorties out of 99,000--12,000 are
tankers.
General Jumper. Sir, we've got more than 5,000 hours of
testing on the F/A-22 airplane now. The guys that are flying
against it are our very best. And the testimony that comes back
to me is, ``When we fly against the F/A-22, we never see a
thing, and we're dead before we know it.'' Like Dr. Roche said,
we have received testimony from the guy who has been commanding
our test efforts, and is a seasoned fighter pilot of many
years. He said, ``If we went to war today, this is the airplane
I'd want to take.'' It goes on and on. So it's very, very
positive, sir.
Senator Stevens. These guys behind you, were they part of
that group?
General Jumper. Sir, these are F-15 pilots. There's no
doubt that they'll be flying F/A-22s someday, and they know
what the airplane can do. They talk to their buddies, and they
know what the airplane can do.
Senator Stevens. Just being a little provincial, I hope you
stick around. I have asked for a photographer. I'll send a
picture home with you----
General Jumper. Yes, sir. You bet.
Senator Stevens [continuing]. Here.
Senator Cochran.
Senator Cochran. Mr. Chairman, I'm curious to know what
progress we are making in the protection of our aircraft in the
Iraqi theater. I know there's an infrared laser capability
that's being developed and tested. Is this an effective defense
against missiles that are aimed at our aircraft that are in
tankers and other similar aircraft?
MISSILE WARNING RECEIVER
Dr. Roche. There are a number of levels of protection.
There's the--we basically have a warning receiver, missile
warning receiver, that tells you something's shot at you, and
then you have a countermeasure you deploy. You can have
difficulties with both. The countermeasures that are the most
widespread are flares. There's a system called directional
infrared countermeasures (DIRCM), which is on our special
operating C-130s. There's a derivative of it, called LAIRCM,
which is large aircraft infrared countermeasure system. Given
the fact that there are components of this that are produced by
a series of companies, there's only so much that can be done in
a period of time, we are spreading these out over a number of
our C-17s, C-130s, and Special Operations aircraft. We have a
classified number now installed. We are doing it in such a way
that we can put some capability on almost all of our large
aircraft C-5s, as well. As we get enough of these systems,
we'll start adding systems to each airplane. They have been
extensively tested down at White Sands over and over and over.
They were retested again most recently when we had concerns
about Iraq. When those systems are installed, the result, so
far, is they've been very, very effective.
SPACE-BASED RADAR
Senator Cochran. There's also an effort to move forward
with a space-based radar system. Could you give us a report on
the status of that?
Dr. Roche. Yes, sir. It's in its architectural phase. One
of the issues that we're trying to work out is to--how much
money do you want to have in the space-based radar part, as
compared to how much do you want to have in atmospheric
systems. There are things that space-based radar can do that
clearly you could otherwise not do--circle the world in a short
period of time, look deep inside a denied territory. But there
are certain technical things that can be done by systems like
JOINTSTARS or the upgrade to JOINTSTARS, called multi-platform
radar technology insection program (MP-RTIP), which is a module
improved radar that would go on E-10A command and control
aircraft, that can do for the ground forces what space-based
radar cannot do. Therefore, we believe this is a portfolio, and
the portfolio to have some space-based radar, but we would not
want to have all our eggs in that basket; you'd want to go
across, so that you can do both synthetic aperture radar
imagery, as well as moving target indicators, as well as large
sweeps of the globe. So it's complementary.
JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER (JSF)
Senator Cochran. The Joint Strike Fighter, multi-role
fighter, that is under development, I understand the aircraft
has been experiencing some development problems, the most
widely publicized having to do with the overall weight of the
aircraft. You mentioned this. You touched on this in your
statement. What is the outlook for this program?
Dr. Roche. The first point I'd like to make, Senator, is
that this is an airplane. It's one of our complicated
airplanes. If you look at the history of our aircraft, we
demand enormous amounts from them, and they are never what the
viewgraphs say. The JSF is going from the viewgraph stage of an
airplane to real drawings, real weight measurements, real
component measurements, en route to being developed. It's only
completed two of what was originally a 10-year development
program. Now it's two of an 11-year development program. Weight
has come up. You would expect that about this time. I can sit
here and predict what kinds of problems we're going to see in
2008, because they're natural in the development of these
systems.
Is the weight a terminal problem? We don't think so. But
because it most severely affects the short-takeoff and landing
airplane, we believe it prudent and right in our
responsibilities to work that problem soonest, without
disrupting the program, and to put all the attention on risk
reduction of the STOVL version. If we can get the weight down,
more thrust out of the engine, and possibly flying it slightly
differently; you don't have to keep every constraint the same
so that it's an effective weapons system, then we would like to
proceed with the program.
But we are very attentive to it, especially now that the
Air Force wants to purchase some of the STOVL units. So we and
the Marines are joined at the hip on this.
Senator Cochran. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Stevens. I do hope you'll mobilize, as much as you
can, the support for the F/A-22. I recall that the B-1, the B-
2, the 117, C-17, you think of any new system that was right on
the line of becoming right up to IOC, it's been just attacked
viciously. But they're always in favor of the systems that are
over the horizon. Okay? Now, this system is needed, and I hope
we can get the support we need, here in Congress, to maintain
it.
I thank you all for what you're doing, and I do really
commend you for what we saw when we went into Iraq and
Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Kuwait. Our generation was
called--what? The----
Dr. Roche. The Greatest Generation.
Senator Stevens [continuing]. Greatest Generation. Well, we
spawned a greater generation. Those kids that are out there now
are much better than we ever were, and they're doing a
wonderful job, men and women now. And, I'll tell you, it's just
an absolute privilege to be able to visit them. So we thank you
for giving us a lift over.
Dr. Roche. I repeat what John Jumper said, these young
people are thrilled when you take the time in your schedule to
spend some time with them.
Senator Stevens. Both Dan and I wish we could be
reincarnated right now and see some of these systems and be
able to fly them. You know?
I did fly the V-22, yes.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
If there are any additional questions, they will be
submitted to you for your response.
[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
were submitted to the Department for response subsequent to the
hearing:]
Question Submitted to Hon. James G. Roche
Question Submitted by Senator Pete V. Domenici
f-117 stealth fighter
Question. The F-117 Stealth Fighter has provided the United States
with a low-observable first strike capability for nearly 20 years. On
day-one, hour-one of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Stealth Fighters
delivered precision munitions on an Iraqi leadership target. F-117s
also struck highly valuable, heavily defended targets during the
conflict in Serbia. The F-117 has proven itself to be the ``tip of the
spear'' of America's military might. The fiscal year 2005 Air Force
budget proposes to reduce 20 percent of the Stealth Fighter force. (10
of 50 aircraft) It is my understanding that the Air Force has performed
a risk-analysis of the proposed retirement. I am concerned, however,
that this Committee has not had sufficient time to review this
important Air Force decision.
Given the F-117's proven capability, do you think it might be
prudent to delay this retirement decision so Congress has more time to
gather further information?
Answer. As you well know the F-117 has served our Nation well for
many years. We believe it is prudent and timely to retire a specific
portion of them enabling the Air Force to fully support and sustain the
remaining aircraft and capitalize on other Air Force transformational
capabilities. Therefore, we would prefer to act now as outlined in the
fiscal year 2005 President's Budget. As always, we welcome discussion
on this and other subjects of interest to you.
______
Questions Submitted to General John P. Jumper
Questions Submitted by Senator Pete. V. Domenici
f-117 stealth fighter
Question. The F-117 Stealth Fighter has provided the United States
with a low-observable first strike capability for nearly 20 years. On
day-one, hour-one of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Stealth Fighters
delivered precision munitions on an Iraqi leadership target. F-117s
also struck highly valuable, heavily defended targets during the
conflict in Serbia. The F-117 has proven itself to be the ``tip of the
spear'' of America's military might. The fiscal year 2005 Air Force
budget proposes to reduce 20 percent of the Stealth Fighter force. (10
of 50 aircraft) It is my understanding that the Air Force has performed
a risk-analysis of the proposed retirement. I am concerned, however,
that this Committee has not had sufficient time to review this
important Air Force decision.
Given the F-117's proven capability, do you think it might be
prudent to delay this retirement decision so Congress has more time to
gather further information?
Answer. As you well know the F-117 has served our Nation well for
many years. We believe it is prudent and timely to retire a specific
portion of them enabling the Air Force to fully support and sustain the
remaining aircraft and capitalize on other Air Force transformational
capabilities. Therefore, we would prefer to act now as outlined in the
fiscal year 2005 President's Budget. As always, we welcome discussion
on this and other subjects of interest to you.
supersonic training study
Question. As you know, the fiscal year 2003 DOD Authorization bill
began a process of evaluating airspace at Cannon Air Force Base for
supersonic flight training. The purpose of this study is to provide
more realistic training for our pilots by allowing them to fly
supersonic speeds at lower altitudes.
Can you provide me with an update on the progress of the
Environmental Impact Study associated with this supersonic training
initiative?
Answer. On December 31, 2003, the Air Force began the Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) process by having the Notice of Intent published
in the Federal Register. That was followed by a series of public
scoping meetings in late January 2004. In December 2004, after
extensive AF and FAA coordination and review, we expect to publish the
Draft EIS for public and agency review. Hearings will then be held to
receive comment on the Draft EIS. A Record of Decision is expected in
fall 2005.
SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS
Senator Stevens. We're going to reconvene on March 31 to
consider the President's request for the intelligence
community.
Thank you very much.
[Whereupon, at 11:33 a.m., Wednesday, March 24, the
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene at 9 a.m., Wednesday,
March 31.]