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Defense Manufacturing—learning the lessons of history - Dr. James G. Roche, secretary of the U.S. Air Force - Transcript
Air Force Speeches, Dec 2, 2003
Dr. James G. Roche, secretary of the Air Force Remarks to the Defense Manufacturing Conference, Washington, D.C., Dec. 2, 2003
On Oct. 7, 2001, less than one month after the deadly terrorist attacks against our nation, President Bush declared in a nationally televised address, "an entire generation of young Americans has gained new understanding of the value of freedom, and it's cost in duty and in sacrifice." With stoic resolve, he said to the nation and the world "the battle is now joined on many fronts. "We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail."
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Thirty days after the President announced to the nation that we would be commencing military operations in Afghanistan, coalition and Northern Alliance troops entered Kabul, and 78 days later General Tommy Franks, the former Commander of U.S. Central Command, traveled there for the inauguration of the interim Afghan government.
On March 19, 2003, after warning Saddam Hussein on numerous occasions, the President again called on the armed forces for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Within 21 days, an Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, and coalition team had effectively broken coherent resistance in Baghdad and collapsed the regime's control. Five days after that, we occupied the last major Iraqi city--Tikrit. In doing so, we replaced a despotic government and, while we face a challenging insurgency that will test our resolve, we have liberated 25 million Iraqis in 26 days.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It's my great pleasure to spend time with my distinguished colleagues from the Department, our friends from Capitol Hill, and the men and women of the defense industry. All of you, working together, made these incredible military achievements possible. Each of you is vital to ensuring we have the best trained, equipped, organized, and motivated military force in the world. And our continued dominance rests on your shoulders. So, it is indeed a great honor to have the opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you this morning.
While much work remains to consolidate our military victories in Afghanistan and Iraq, the lessons from these campaigns in remote and inhospitable lands halfway around the world validate the incredible capabilities of our U. S. armed forces. They demonstrate the maturity of our ability to plan and execute an array of complex, integrated, and simultaneous operations, designed to support objectives across the spectrum of conflict, from global strike to humanitarian relief. The success of these battles in the war on terrorism is also a tribute to the outstanding men and women of our military. Without them--and their courage in conflict--none of this would be possible.
In the Air Force, we have much about which we are very proud from these operations.
Our coalition air and space forces blanketed the entire region with an umbrella of air dominance, enabling maritime forces and the ground component to operate without fear of attack from the sky.
The flexibility of airpower and the capability of our global mobility forces adapted to the exigencies of coalition operations--conducting the largest combat airborne insertion of forces since Normandy.
Our airmen demonstrated the precision, flexibility, and speed of air and space power, as well as their humanity and discipline, and their commitment to joint operations. Along with our colleagues, we were dominant in the air and on the ground, a goal pursued by Arnold, Spaatz, Patton and Bradley, and one General Jumper and I continue to pursue today.
Despite this dominance, the demands of our current national security environment have forced us to ask first-principle questions about the direction we are taking, and how we will organize, train and equip our forces for the future.
Secretary Rumsfeld has appropriately challenged each of the services to "better prepare our forces to meet the challenges of the 21st century." Today's war on terror is unlike any our nation has fought before. Instead of opposing armies, navies and air forces, we face terrorists who move information at the speed of an e-mail, money at the speed of a wire transfer, and people at the speed of a commercial jetliner. As the 21st century unfolds, we may face still different threats and challenges--and wars that could be distinctly different from today's war on terror.
The challenge--Sustaining our Dominance
While we are making progress in adapting the armed forces and our Air Force to these new challenges, I remain concerned that we can do better to deliver superior combat capability to our men and women. We must ensure that our armed forces have the tools they need to fight and win our nation's wars--now and in a generation from now. I remain concerned that we are not leveraging our nation's prosperity, our intellectual capital, or our industrial base sufficiently to deliver the capability we need to sustain our dominance.
We must remember that the United States doesn't have a patent on "progress." Innovation and technology belong to those who act. And advantage in warfighting goes to the nation--or in the case of the current world environment, possibly to that rogue group--that figures out how to best use technology to advance its cause.
