Aging Air Force wants big bucks fix

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - Air Force officials are warning that unless their budget is increased dramatically, and soon, the military's high-flying branch won't dominate the skies as it has for decades.

After more than seven years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Air Force's aging jet fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft and gunships are at the breaking point, they say, and expensive, ultramodern replacements are needed fast.

"What we've done is put the requirement on the table that says, 'If we're going to do the missions you're going to ask us to do, it will require this kind of investment,'" Maj. Gen. Paul Selva, the Air Force's director of strategic planning, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"Failing that, we take what is already a geriatric Air Force," Selva said, "and we drive it for another 20 years into an area of uncertainty."

An extra $20 billion each year over the next five — beginning with an Air Force budget of about $137 billion in 2009 instead of the $117 billion proposed by the Bush administration — would solve that problem, according to Selva and other senior Air Force officers.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080218/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/air_force_worn_out_by_war

[Arctic Dave]

1. And my response

Hey, Air Force. Shut The Fuck Up And Sit Down. Take a look around and see what your ALREADY bloated budgets are doing to this country. Just what we need MORE excessive military spending. Talk about not having a clue.

[Journeyman]

2. Time for a bake sale (especially since my state's school budgets are being hacked). . .

because, let's face it -- an extra $20 billion a year for any problem over the next 5 years would help solve those concerns, too.

[Phred42]

3. We are Already Bankrupt. We cannot afford to Borrow any more

[Johnyawl]

4. Well, it looks like we need to RAISE TAXES!

Or perhaps get out of the empire building business.

[LeftyMom]

5. Is this to take on the mighty Iraqi Air Force, or the Afghani Air Patrol?

Pull the other one!

How fucking stupid do they think we are?

[L0oniX]

6. Fuck the military. Spend the money on health care and infrastructure.

You might even consider paying down the national debt. Doh!

[fascisthunter]

7. BANKRUPTED THE FUCKING COUNTRY MILITARY! Now You Want More????

Yet ya can't pay vets benefits!!!!!!! Here's an idea.... No more fucking wars! It's like a bunch of drug addicts telling us we have to give em a fix or else.

The air force even has the balls to have born-agains infusing religion in our tax payed secular military. Fucking sick of the hypocrisy! Go fuck yourself!

[peace13]

8. Wow these are harsh comments.

I vote for the Air Force suggesting to pResident and his sidekick that we end our global surge on Terrorism so that we can regroup and refit. We can't have it both ways and you are correct...we are broke. peace,Kim

[ileus]

9. 20 billion isn't crap...give them another 100b at least.

[fascisthunter]

11. go ahead.. you pay them

[mls]

10. Price of jet fuel

Cut back on those sorties. The price of jet fuel has got to be costing a fortune. Think of the savings.

[azureblue]

12. When does the Air Force help the terrorists?

They give away their weakness to those who want to destroy our freedoms! Whoever said this should be tried for treason!
snark off

But seriously, if the Aid Force is so worried, then simply leave Iraq. End of money & resource drain. Beginning of end of problem. then take stock and see what you need. Oh, & BTW, how good did those multi million dollar planes perform in modern combat? Not so good, huh? Quite a number of mechanical failures, huh? too fast and had to rely on smart missiles to hit anything, huh? And of course they took into account the time lag between getting the money and getting working equipment. Or not.
Maybe the AF needs to rethink the concept of what they need, not the concept of what will bring big bucks to the military industrial complex...

[eringer]

13. Mr. QDR, You Are So Smart

"If we're going to do the missions you're (I guess he must mean George W. Bush) going to ask us to do, it will require this kind of investment." Looks like old Prince Paulie just pissed away his third star. Enjoy your retirement.

[rasputin1952]

14. Let me see...as a vet, I know how much cash is just plain

wasted at an incredible rate.

My daughter was on a carrier, she helped push 2 choppers of the flight deck, not because they were damaged beyond repair, but because those who ran the ship decided they needed new ones...(even though there was nothing wong with the ones they had). Furniture was routinely tossed off the deck before returning to home port, so that new desks, etc would be necessary.

There were times in the Army when I wondered at the "wisdom" of the Quartermaster Corps. In Germany, I was the NCOIC at a grenade range one day, Me, and 3 of my Medics...no one else showed up. We started tossing grenades. To do this, one had to open the box of grenades, the box of fuses, put the two together and then pull the pin and toss the said grenade. The rationale was that once you signed out the grenades, you could not bring them back, even if the boxes were still sealed...all you could come back with were pins, "proving" you had used said grenades. Here's the rub...out of a Battalion, no one showed up, not one squad, platoon, company no one, except us. We started tossing grenades at 1300...we finished about 1745...and I felt like I had just pitched the World Series, Game 7 and I had to win. We came back with the requisite pins, and were told that there was a change to the training schedule, but no one remembered we were out there.You have not lived until you've thrown, tossed, lobbed, rolled 288 grenades in about 5 hours...:eyes:

Point is, the waste is incredible, and NO ONE ever seems to care...:(

[maddezmom]

17. Hopefully, if we get a Dem elected people will care again

I'm not against upscaling the air force, but I also want our vets from this war and past wars taken care of pronto.

[rasputin1952]

19. There has always been a call for people to sacrifice some of

their time to defend the nation. There have always been promises that those who did would be cared for, inevitably, the latter never comes to fruition.

The Spanish-American war saw Roosevelt's Rough Riders left ill and w/o transportation in Greenport LI NY. After WWI, many came home from Europe w/horrible effects from gas and psychological problems, more often than not, they were left to their own devices. WWII, men were treated better, and the GI Bill along w/better medical care made dramatic moves forward. Korea, most were seen as being part of a stalemate, although they performed as heroically and as patriotically as any before them. Vietnam, no parades, a VFW that saw you as a "loser", a public that was afraid all VN vets were committable.

The men and women who sacrifice a part of their lives in service to this nation deserve more than they have received.We, the American People must demand of those who send our brothers and sisters in arms, a fair shake. Not just cash in their pockets, but the medical care they deserve, including any psychological care they may need. If the people who hold the purse strings paid out one tenth of one percent in what they do to destroy life, they could be saving lives, good lives, of those who are willing to make that sacrifice.

I wish I had had a few of the Chickenhawks in my unit, after digging mile long shit trenches for real soldiers to crap in, I'd put them on point, and they could draw the fire so they would know just what these people are nobly doing. They wouldn't be able to sit down, because I would have chewed their asses off to point where they would be happy to see combat, just to get away from me...:evilgrin:

:patriot:

[jody]

15. USAF aircraft such as the F-15 are crashing because their airframe life has been exceeded. We need

cargo aircraft to replace the C-5 and C-141 and a new fleet of tankers plus new search and rescue helicopters.

Military strategists know a country cannot protect its international interests without a modern air force as well as army and navy.

That's life in the 21st century.

[lovuian]

16. Bush has totally decimated our forces

we have to get out of Iraq

[TrogL]

18. Canada's already doing some of their work

So much of the US air fleet is broken that the United States can't keep up its NATO commitment so Canada's flying some of their flights.

This gets confusing because some of these are over disputed Canada/US territory (eg. the Arctic) so if Canada starts to get pissy about it, Canada will have to launch flights to prevent Canada from...oh, you get the idea.

[baldguy]

20. Which aircraft carrier should the Navy cancel?

THAT'LL get 'em going!

[Thor_MN]

21. What would be wrong with building NEW aircraft of proven designs?

Why do we need to throw billions of dollars down the crapper to design new aircraft that develop problems at inconvient times? Let's make a new helicopter whose rotors will delaminate or engines will overheat when deployed in weather different from what you see in San Diego!!

There are no new enemy craft to challenge our existing designs. Your St. Ronnie WON the cold war, remember? No need for new designs, get over it, already.

[Xenotime]

22. Air farce hasn't really been doing much lately...

Don't they pretty much has point and click drones any more anyway?

[AdHocSolver]

23. Let's outsource our aircraft manufacturing to China (like everything else) and save some money.

Our military/industrial complex is manufacturing a lot of parts in China. Let's bypass Lockheed, Boeing, etc. and go directly to China. Then the U.S. taxpayer can get some benefit from lower prices.

[Joe Bacon]

24. Wow, you mean Jesus ain't providing for his followers?

The Air Farce is flooded with religious extremists blessed by President Ass-Holeyness. They are all praying all the time to JC and his Sonshine Band according to web sites like http://www.forceministries.com Gee, all those brainwashed cadets have to do is pray for divine intervention and the money will flow like water.

If it isn't, maybe they are praying to the wrong God!

:sarcasm: mode now off

It is sickening to see how Christians have destroyed America!

[Jack_DeLeon]

25. Maybe if they quit wasting money on having the best golf courses...

and quit managed thier budget better they could actually afford planes.

[Divine Discontent]

26. give 'em hell, jack! EOM

[FalconsRule]

28. Money for Golf Courses

Doesn't come out of the same pots of money that pays for O&M, or procurement, or R&D, or MILCON. It comes out of MWR funds and is required to be self-sustaining. Those are non-appropriated funds.

Our service members deserve SOME leisure activities, and as long as they are self-sustaining, I'm not adverse to golf courses on military bases.

[Thothmes]

27. Should be easy to handle

The incoming Democratic administration can use the money from ending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy to pay for the deferred maintenance and new aircraft.

[nebula]

29. Fuck the god damn Air Force

They failed to do their job on 9/11, and people died as a result.

US Air Force are utterly WORTHLESS. They don't deserve a penny.

[FalconsRule]

30. Well, that's one opinion

Sorry you feel that way...

[nebula]

31. It's not just the Air Force

we should be slashing all military budgets by at least half, not adding more to it.

You can't fight terror with grossly overpriced stealth bombers and tanks. Those are only good for lining the pockets of politicians and defense contractors.

[FalconsRule]

32. I agree,

but we should do so only when China, Russia, the EU, India, et al cease producing the same or similar types of weaponry. I fear it is nothing more than a vicious circle.

[nebula]

33. Utter nonsense

The US has always been the agitator of the arms race. Historically, Russia and China have always responded to US military belligerence and build-up, never been the ones to provoke it.

[FalconsRule]

34. Right

So what arms race is China responding to now?...or Russia?

[nebula]

36. You've heard of the Iraq war, right?

the US has an illegal presence in Iraq and threatening to attack China's ally and major source of their oil, Iran. Both countries are in China's backyard. The US was also the first to unilaterally pull out of the Nuclear non-proliferation treaty, sparking off a new nuclear arms race on top of a conventional one. If I were Russia or China, I would not be sitting on my hands in the face of such flagrant provocations in my own backyard.

[Thothmes]

38. Tibet, Afghanistan

[Blue_Tires]

35. it is stories like this that present GREAT opportunity to

our friendly neighborhood mercanary firm, dishwater usa....you just know they are trying to find a country where they can buy some fighter-bombers on the cheap and then they will be more than happy to take up the slack (at a price greater than 20 bil, of course)

[hunter]

37. Easy. Get rid of the Air Force.

That would save a lot of money and close down a significant number of military industrial complex tax money laundering machines.

We could cut 90% out of the military budget and our nation would be *more* secure than it is today.

[Canuckistanian]

39. Playtoys cost money

And when you want to have the very best playtoys, it's gonna cost you big bucks.

Especially when you WASTE them on non-essential play outings.