There’s been a fair amount of
Trump-supporter braggadocio regarding the President-elect’s nomination of Gen. James
“Mad Dog” Mattis as the new Defense Secretary – an admirable choice, certainly.
If Mad Dog can navigate the machinations of the Pentagon as well as he did the
battlefield we’re in for a rejuvenation of America’s military that should be a
major reversal of its downward fortunes over the past few decades. I hope that
Mr. Trump fully appreciates the magnitude of the task he has set before Gen.
Mattis.
That task that has grown steadily in size
and complexity since the end of the end of the Bush I administration. It’s not
just a matter of budget and resource allocation. Much has been done with the
intention of diminishing, if not eliminating, the traditions and
esprit-de-corps of all the armed services. An early example is what happened in
the wake of a 1991 convention in Las Vegas following the prosecution of the
Gulf War. Several Navy officers had their careers sunk in what became the
“Tailhook Witch-Hunt” as recounted in
the October 1993 issue of Heterodoxy. This is but one of many
ventures into the transformation of the military into post-modern,
politically-correct, feminist-beholden, open-homosexuality organizations. The
2008 PBS mini-series “Carrier”,
whether intentionally or not, gives our potential foes an insight into just how
far the emasculation of our armed services has gone. A few extracted bits may
be seen here.
All PC nonsense aside, the defense
budget is an issue. What has the $10 Trillion increase in the
national debt bought? I’m not sure if anyone really knows, but certainly not a
stronger, more robust military. Being a former USAF officer and pilot, the Air
Force is my particular concern. A recent article in the American
Spectator titled “The Air Force Needs
Maverick” caught my attention and I thought I’d pass it along to my pilot
training classmates (we had a 50th reunion
at the end of October). Was USAF really suffering from a severe pilot shortage?
A response from one of my comrades-in-arms broadened the picture:
Not sure I
buy premise that there is a pilot shortage. I recall recently reading
that maintainers say they have a serious shortage of trained personnel.
And I have heard logistics guys say they do not have enough parts, fuel and
people. And complaints earlier this year about munitions shortages
resulting in combat sorties flown with sub-optimal ordnance loads.
Lastly, senior Air Force leaders are continually arguing for additional
airframes. Altogether, situation appears to result in complaints that
pilots in non-combat assignments are flying only once per week or less.
And apparently, some of those graduating UPT are put on the shelf for a year
because there are no cockpits available. Real problem in my mind is that
our national strategy leads to a force structure that leads to a budget
requirement and that amount is simply not available. As the country is
apparently unwilling to cough-up more for defense spending, the hard
requirement should be to reduce the strategy and force structure such that a
balance is struck between the elements competing for the funds made available.
The solution lies not so much in more pilots but in the need for a strong
National Command Authority prepared to re-set national strategy and enforce
budget constraints, and an armed services leadership prepared to balance
requirements based upon available funding.
The Air Force’s conventional combat
readiness and capacity appear rather stunted.
Nuclear strike forces? Well, USAF’s
Minuteman III missile force has now been de-MIRVed in
conformance with our nuclear weapons agreements with the Soviets/Russians. The
Minuteman IIIs were once each armed with three nuclear warheads but now sport
only one. Additionally, as announced in the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review, “… the
intercontinental ballistic missile warheads now are targeted on open oceans — not
Russian or Chinese cities — in case of an accidental launch, senior
administration officials said in releasing the report.” That’s sure to
put fear caution whatever into the hearts of our
adversaries.
We’ve also been decommissioning advanced,
nuclear-capable cruise missiles that are aircraft launched. Meanwhile, the
Russians have tested a
ground-launched, nuclear-capable cruise missile, said item being specifically
prohibited by treaty. The Russians and Chinese have both developed and are
deploying or will deploy advanced ICBMs as well as maneuverable hypersonic
glide vehicles for nuke delivery that are very difficult to intercept with our
current ABM technology. Both are advancing their anti-satellite capabilities.
The Cold War arms race didn’t end. It’s accelerating. America?
Over the last 10+ years there have been
several controversies targeting the Air Force over its command and control – or
lack thereof – of the USAF nuclear strike force, including both missile and
aircraft delivered warheads. Two of these led to the dismissal of the Air Force
Secretary and USAF Chief of Staff by then Defense Secretary Robert Gates. There
was also a problem with missile alert crews sleeping with the missile silo
blast door open. A SAC wing flunked its ORI (Operational Readiness Inspection)
re-inspection ostensibly because of improperly filled-out paperwork. USAF’s
nuclear command and control sins may be manifold, but where do we stand in
correcting them now that the headlines have faded well into the past?
Procurement of military materiel from
foreign suppliers is an issue even less publicized. The idea of buying a new
USAF aerial tanker from Airbus didn’t seem like a very good idea to Mr. Gaffney
who detailed some
of the shenanigans involved in the bidding process. There was also a problem
with counterfeit chips from the Chinese ending up in our military aircraft as
was revealed by Dr. Joel F. Brenner, National Counterintelligence Executive, in
a 2009 address.
Have we ever held the Chinese accountable? Have we held anyone accountable for
any of this? Other than the chaps Mr. Gates tossed?
We have some very serious problems
concerning America’s Air Force and our military in general. I wish President
Trump and General Mattis the best in addressing those problems, however serious
and pervasive they may be. They’ll need all the support they can get from the
American people if the job’s to be done well.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/12/the_giant_challenge_facing_secdef_mattis.html#ixzz4ULQIxKUl
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