Aerospace World By Peter Grier Chiefs: Annual $50 Billion–$60 Billion Boost Needed The US military chiefs have deliv- ered to Congress this message: The country’s fighting forces are OK for the moment, the future looks trou- bling, and the get-well effort can’t be carried out on the cheap. Boeing photo by Ron Bookout That is the essence of extended Sept. 27 testimony to the armed ser- vices committees in the House and Senate. The panels heard from heads of all four services and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton. The chiefs, under questioning, in- dicated that the Pentagon budget needs to be boosted by $50 billion– $60 billion per year for the next 10 years. Annual increases included $20 billion–$30 billion for the Air Force, $17 billion for the Navy, $10 billion for the Army, and $1.5 billion for the Boeing’s X-32A Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator lands at Edwards Marine Corps. AFB, Calif., after its first flight Sept. 18. Fred Knox piloted the aircraft. It took Shelton said the US is prepared to off from Palmdale, Calif., and went through airworthiness tests, including flying fight and win two Major Theater Wars qualities and subsystems checkouts. The X-32A and Lockheed Martin’s JSF at more or less the same time, which version, X-35A, will undergo five months of testing at Edwards. is the basis of US national security strategy. Boeing JSF Makes First Flight in design to their planned production However, Shelton went on, the next Boeing’s Joint Strike Fighter con- aircraft. President and Congress will have to cept demonstrator, the X-32A, made Boeing has made several changes increase defense spending to keep its first flight Sept. 18 from Palmdale, in its design that are not reflected in the troops ready and equip them with Calif., to Edwards AFB, Calif. its X-32A. It has added horizontal the kinds of weapons they need. Its planned 40 minutes in the air tails and changed its wing shape, “We must find the resources nec- was cut short to 20 after a chase among other things. essary to modernize the force,” said airplane noticed hydraulic fluid leak- Shelton. ing from the aircraft. AEF Cycle 2 Coming Up Shelton’s comments were ampli- Company officials termed the leak As the Air Force neared the end of fied by the other chiefs: Gen. Michael “minor,” saying they were still able to its first 15-month Aerospace Expedi- E. Ryan, USAF Chief of Staff; Gen. complete planned tests. After it was tionary Force cycle, officials are gath- Eric K. Shinseki, Army Chief of Staff; repaired, a second flight Sept. 23 ering up lessons and implementing Adm. Vernon E. Clark, Chief of Naval lasted nearly an hour and took the changes to improve AEF Cycle 2. Operations; and Gen. James L. Jones, airplane to 10,000 feet. The service launched the Expedi- Commandant of the Marine Corps. “The airplane is a pleasure to fly,” tionary Aerospace Force concept Oct. Though the service chiefs offered said Boeing JSF chief test pilot Fred 1, 1999, part of an effort to make the hard numbers, Shelton himself men- Knox. lives of its personnel more stable and tioned no specific budget figures and The flights were the first of a predictable. said the amount of additional defense planned five-month test program at After the first 10 deployments of spending would depend on the out- Edwards. The program calls for 50 the AEFs, officials are pleased with come of a planned Pentagon review flights, totaling about 100 hours, to the results. “My general impression next year. validate the Boeing airplane’s han- is that the Aerospace Expeditionary Shelton said an overly large chunk dling characteristics. Force is going very well,” said Brig. of DoD spending is being used to fill Boeing’s JSF test aircraft got into Gen. Dennis R. Larsen, commander gaps in near-term readiness, rather the air earlier than its Lockheed Mar- of the AEF Center at Langley AFB, than going to pay for new equipment. tin counterpart, but Lockheed offi- Va. “There are some growing pains, “We are, collectively, robbing Peter cials were quick to note their JSF but any time you make a transition to pay Paul,” Shelton said. concept demonstrator is much closer that is this major and involves an 14 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2000 its demilitarized zone border with Key Senator Opposes New Service South Korea, says the report, which is titled “2000 Report to Congress: for Military Space Military Situation on the Korean Pen- insula.” It was written at the behest of Sen. Wayne Allard, a Colorado Republican, serves on the Senate Armed Congress by US commanders in South Services Committee and chairs that panel’s Strategic Subcommittee, which Korea and defense intelligence offi- oversees military space. Moreover, military space is, for him, a major local political issue, given the fact that Colorado is the home of US Space Command, cials in Washington. Air Force Space Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command, and North Korean forces have stock- numerous space contractors. piled more than 500 shorter-range At a Sept. 21 session of the Defense Writers Group in Washington, D.C., Allard Scud missiles and still makes and was asked about the workings of the new, Congressionally mandated space fields No Dong missiles able to hit US commission and its key issue—should Congress take military space activities forces in South Korea and Japan. away from the Air Force and hand them over to a newly created military service? Moreover, said the report, North Allard’s response: Korea has the ability to produce an- “[Sen.] Bob Smith, my predecessor as chairman of the Strategic Subcommit- thrax and other biological agents and tee, has pushed for a separate agency. ... I think that the constraints on our military financially are such that this is not the time to be setting up a new agency, has “produced munition stockpiles because it just means that much more money gets diverted from some other estimated at up to 5,000 metric tons military needs which I see as much greater—for example, operation and mainte- of several types of chemical agents.” nance of our equipment. We are at a time when our budget is severely constrained North Korea “maintains a dogged with the increased deployments that we’re having. ... I think it would be inadvis- adherence to a ‘military first’ policy able, at least at this time, to set up a separate space agency, or [give] space a seat even against the backdrop of a na- on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or something like that. I think it would be inadvisable. tion facing severe economic and so- I think you’d set up a whole new bureaucracy, with ranking and commands. We’ve cial challenges,” the report states. It got better places to put our resources.” says the army is more than just a military organization, serving as “the central unifying structure in the coun- organization as big as the Air Force, gone from 90,000 to 141,000 AEF– try.” there are bound to be some problem deployable people. The report concludes that “until areas.” Guard and Reserve units make up North Korea’s conventional military As the service moves into its sec- a significant portion of this manpower. threat is significantly reduced and its ond cycle, the Air Force will be length- Ten percent of combat support task- quest for nuclear weapons is elimi- ening the deployments of the on-call ings and 24 percent of aviation unit nated, the Korean peninsula remains Aerospace Expeditionary Wings. commitments for the second cycle a dangerous theater.” “The AEWs will go from 90 days to are filled by Guard and Reserve units. 120 days, Larsen said. DoD Left Deutch Probe to CIA? AEW commanders found that, in Pentagon Warily Eyes North The Pentagon insists it was not 90-day deployments, the wings did Korea reluctant to investigate former Deputy not have enough time to recover and A new Pentagon report, publicly Secretary of Defense John M. Deutch’s then be ready to go back on call. released Sept. 22, holds that North mishandling of classified information. “This also rotates who is on call for Korea, despite its recent overtures to Instead, DoD at first thought it best the holiday and summer season,” said the West, is still a major military threat to leave any such probe to the Cen- Larsen. that continues to devote a dispropor- tral Intelligence Agency, officials said tionate share of its resources to armed Sept. 20. Deutch left DoD to become Early Notification Strengthens might. director of the CIA in 1995. AEFs Pyongyang has deployed large “The CIA had already started down Improvement in the notification pro- numbers of rocket launchers, artil- this road,” said a Pentagon spokes- cess stands out as one of the EAF’s lery pieces, and other weapons along man, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, at a biggest successes so far, said the AEF Center’s Larsen. Prior to AEFs 5 and 6, notifications went out some 15 days before de- “Significant Readiness Challenges, ployment. For the second cycle, which Today and in the Future” begins Dec. 1, notification comes 120 days prior to the start. From the Sept. 21 testimony of Lt. Gen. Robert H. Foglesong, deputy chief of Shortfall rates—the measurement staff, air and space operations, to the House Armed Services Military Procure- of units unable to carry out their AEF ment Subcommittee: taskings—have also improved. “Overall combat readiness is down a total of 23 percent since 1996.