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January 2010/$4 Global Force Worries Depot Nightmares Holding Fire Over Afghanistan EW Meets Austerity Reduce the danger they face. Increase the danger they pose. Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy without endorsement. ©2009 Northrop Grumman Corporation www.northropgrumman.com/ums UNMANNED SYSTEMS There are no assets more valuable than warfighters. And there is no better way to both protect and enhance them than with Northrop Grumman Unmanned Systems. January 2010, Vol. 93, No. 1 2 Editorial: The Obama Bomber 63 A Habit of Heroism By Robert S. Dudney By John T. Correll A new aircraft program is drawing With 200 combat missions as a PJ near, but pitfalls await. in Vietnam, Duane Hackney was the most decorated airman in the Air 22 Global Force Worries Force. By Adam J. Hebert The Air Force is struggling to pre- vent erosion of its global capabilities. 28 Holding Fire Over Afghanistan By David Wood Airmen adapt to the McChrystal directive. 28 34 Depot Nightmares By Marc V. Schanz At Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, what workers see can be awfully grim. 42 Electronic Warfare Meets Austerity 52 By John A. Tirpak The Air Force has abandoned big centerpiece programs and will go www.airforce-magazine.com with modest enhancements. 4 Letters 46 The Vanishing Arsenal of Airpower By Rebecca Grant 6 Washington Watch Negative events have begun over- 34 taking the once mighty and innova- 10 Air Force World tive US aerospace industry. 13 Index to Advertisers 52 STRAT-X 16 Senior Staff Changes By Peter Grier 19 Chart Page This secret 1960s study left its stamp on US nuclear forces for the 20 Issue Brief next 40 years. 51 Verbatim 56 The Light Attack Aircraft 68 Flashback By Marcus Weisgerber USAF reconsiders the mix of aircraft 70 Books needed to provide CAS and armed 71 AFA National Report overwatch in irregular confl icts. 76 Unit Reunions 59 Fighters Far and Wide By Marina Malenic 77 AFA National Leaders World air forces are on pace to buy 79 Field Contacts About the cover: Spirit of Indiana. more than 3,000 fi ghters over the Photo by Sagar Pathak. See “Global next decade. 80 Airpower Classics Force Worries,” p. 22. AIR FORCE Magazine (ISSN 0730-6784) January 2010 (Vol. 93, No. 1) is published monthly by the Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Phone (703) 247-5800. Second-class postage paid at Arlington, Va., and additional mailing offi ces. Membership Rate: $36 per year; $90 for three-year membership. Life Membership (nonrefundable): $500 single payment, $525 extended payments. Subscription Rate: $36 per year; $29 per year additional for postage to foreign addresses (except Canada and Mexico, which are $10 per year additional). Regular issues $4 each. USAF Almanac issue $6 each. Change of address requires four weeks’ notice. Please include mailing label. POSTMAS- TER: Send changes of address to Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Trademark registered by Air Force Association. Copyright 2010 by Air Force Association. AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2010 1 Editorial By Robert S. Dudney, Editor in Chief The Obama Bomber HE Obama Administration, seeking tending the aircraft’s ability to cruise in Indeed, the nuclear factor poses a Tto wrap up nearly a year’s worth of a target area. Because a bomber might fairly comprehensive set of problems. pondering and probing on the subject of have to wait for hidden targets to reveal One is that nuclear-capable (therefore what to do about USAF’s heavy bomber themselves, it must be able to loiter for manned) aircraft would lack the per- fl eet, last month gave its unoffi cial bless- long periods. On-station survivability is sistence of remotely piloted types. An- ing to a new long-range strike program. key, especially in a subsonic aircraft, as other is cost; hardening the bomber for Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates the new bomber almost certainly will be. nuclear operations is extremely expen- on Dec. 11 announced the project “prob- The needed technology—advanced sive, leading to reduced numbers. And ably” will start in the 2011 budget plan, stealth, integrated avionics, and effi cient arms control poses a threat because due out next month. propulsion—already is pretty much in nuclear bombers would almost certainly Gates said he wants “a family of ca- hand, developed in the course of the be caught up in tight numerical limits. pabilities” and “manned and unmanned” F-22 and F-35 fi fth generation fi ghter A recent study by the Mitchell Institute systems. This was not unexpected. The for Airpower Studies suggests DOD subject has been studied for years. The A new aircraft start withdrawing bombers from the stra- issues and pitfalls are well-known. program is drawing near, tegic nuclear triad of bombers, ICBMs, More details might emerge when but pitfalls await. and sub-based missiles. The authors of DOD unveils its spending blueprint. For this paper—Dr. Dana Johnson, Dr. Chris the moment, it is enough to say that a programs. For all that, other factors could Bowie, and Dr. Robert Haffa—point out new system is needed. As the Air Force complicate the effort, and these must be that failures to modernize the bomber Association has often noted, the fl eet of handled with care. fl eet and bomber weapons already B-52s, B-1s, and B-2s is the oldest on One is a debate over whether, and have pushed the US near a “de facto record (half predates the 1962 Cuban to what extent, the new bomber should dyad” anyway. They call for directing Missile Crisis). With no new aircraft rely on a human pilot, as opposed to a nuclear-related bomber funding toward coming in, the nation’s long-range attack pilot located at an Earth-bound site, or a conventional bomber with greater force would simply fade out. even no pilot at all. Gates and others future utility. The singular requirement for this see great value in going unmanned, for Within the active and retired Air Force new bomber, whatever its programmatic several reasons. First, it eliminates risk community, this is—to put it mildly—a details, is that it have an unquestioned that a crew might be killed or captured. minority opinion. Retired Gen. John power to go deep into enemy airspace Second, it would simplify design require- Michael Loh, former head of Air Combat and threaten, in a variety of ways, a foe’s ments. Third, an unmanned bomber Command, says the manned nuclear- most critical targets. (The threat could could persist on station for long periods, capable bomber is, if anything, increas- be kinetic attack; at other times, it could perhaps even days. ing in importance. Writing in the Dec. 7 be mere observation of a target set.) USAF offi cials, on the other hand, lean issue of the Omaha World-Herald, Loh Such aim points, given their importance, more heavily toward manned systems, calls for building a new nuclear bomber, usually are remote, hardened, or buried, and not because the Air Force, long noting that “defense offi cials have con- and heavily defended by surface-to-air steeped in the culture of combat pilots, tinued to validate the triad as the best missiles and fi ghters. is a slave to tradition. There are obvious mix of delivery systems for effective The classic bomber attributes of drawbacks to remotely piloted aircraft. deterrence.” range, payload, and rapid responsive- One is their vulnerability to interruption That, in Loh’s view, also applies to ness obviously offer value. Yet the deep- or disruption in electronic links between “extended deterrence,” the spreading strike mission puts an even higher pre- an aircraft and its controller. Another is of the US nuclear umbrella over allies mium on penetration of hostile airspace the remote pilot’s relative lack of situ- such as Japan, South Korea, and NATO and thus on bomber stealthiness. Stand- ational awareness, caused by limitations nations. Confi dence in the US prevents off weapons, though useful in many of aircraft sensors. these nations from going nuclear, he missions, are of less utility. They possess The long-term solution, say technolo- said. And, because it is a visible token of weaknesses such as high per-missile gists, could be fully autonomous “robot” US commitment, “the strategic nuclear cost, relatively small payload, and less- aircraft. At present, that would take a bomber is the delivery system that is than-optimum accuracy, compared to much higher level of computer-based most effective for achieving credible, penetrating bombers. machine intelligence. The human brain extended deterrence.” Stealth is the key. The less vulnerable is cheaper and better. As can be seen, the bomber is still a an aircraft is to detection by radar, the Another problem posed by the “un- lightning rod for debates and disputes, better it penetrates. It needs far fewer manned option” is the need for nuclear many of which are serious and likely to escort aircraft to suppress enemy air surety. Without a man in the cockpit, the persist for quite a while. Yet to be seen defenses—important in light of the inexo- Pentagon would fi nd it virtually impos- is whether the Administration will fi nd rable spread of advanced defenses. Very sible to deploy nuclear weapons on the the money, patience, and political will low observable aircraft qualities would bomber. Dangers of a mishap would be to see this vital program through to offer another kind of benefi t as well—ex- too great. completion. ■ 2 AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2010 JOINT SERVICES INTEROPERABILITY FOR MULTIPLE UNMANNED AIRCRAFT AAI’s Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS) architecture is the preferred solution for U.S.