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Challenges of today's Air Force
Air Force Speeches, Feb 8, 2007 by Michael W. Wynne
Last September I focused on two fundamental initiatives launched since your February meeting. From 30,000-foot level, these are the major stories of 2006 for our Air Force. First, General Moseley and I assessed the federal budget environment and determined that only by finding some freed up funds within our Air Force could we begin the recapitalization of our equipment we so urgently needed. We had to live within our bounds and find resources for recapitalization. Inside the four corners of our funding Congress had given us, we had to find a way to begin a major recapitalization plan. You might recall that as I advised you when I left the movie (military) in 1973, all of our assets whether air or space averaged about eight years old. Re-entering, they averaged about 23 years old, now 24 years old.
This was really the wakeup call, if you will, to me, to make sure that I joined with General Moseley who I knew had told the then-sitting Secretary of Defense that his number one objective was to recapitalize the Air Force, and we together had to find a plan. Asking to increase our Air Force top line in today's budget environment, to recapitalize our Air Force, as noble a goal as it is, and though it would be very well-applauded here, is a non-starter in Congress during the current budget fight. Strategy is about choices, almost always about hard choices. We determined that it was our duty and the duty of every Airman to ensure that future Airmen would be as capable to defend America with the best equipment we could make available. Our generation inherited a mighty Air Force, and we owe that same inheritance to those who follow and to our nation of tomorrow.
As I described last year, we saw the personnel account as the fastest-growing component of our cost structure. We also realized that we could not cut our operations and maintenance with then 15, now 16 continuous years of combat duty. All of that action is taking its toll on the operation and maintainability of our equipment. We therefore began the difficult task of force-shaping to match for size with the forecasted modern equipment. This translated into some 40,000 full-time equivalent personnel slots. It was necessary, it was hard, and it was painful. I can report to you two things. First of all, our Airmen, top to bottom, get it. And they are coping with it. Second, with the ground force plus-up, we are re-assessing just how we support them, what does it mean with respect to the drawdown that we were planning, and how much of the Air Force is actually dedicated to each combat brigade as it is stood up. The decision to live within our bounds and demonstrate by deeds and sacrifice the importance of recapitalization has earned the attention of Congress and respect from the experts who follow defense budget matters. I believe we have started momentum that will help us continue and build on our recapitalization plan. Our concern is that we are at a point where we absolutely must assess our size relative to our ground-force brethren. We must balance this as well and now see that maybe we are in an over-constrained environment that will only be fixed with adequate total military buying power and not reductions beyond any that we have presently forecast.
