UNCERTAIN FUTURE

National Guard, Jan 2005 by Prawdzik, Christopher

Air test program sets course, prompts questions

PENTAGON

Air Force and National Guard Bureau (NGB) officials announced several test initiatives Dec. 1 designed to shape the Future Total Force (FTF) but wouldn't entertain details that go beyond these initial steps in the Air Guard's transformation.

Designed to improve overall Air Force capability by combining the attributes of active, Guard and Reserve forces, the first stages oi the process include some new test missions and limited blended-active and reserve component units.

This announcement came as the Guard continues to entertain the notion ol replacement missions as current operations and future requirements evolve.

NGB said recently, for example, that the Guard will have to retire up to 400 aircraft and retrain 17,000 Air Guardsmen by 2015. The planes are being eliminated to make way for fewer but more capable next-generation aircrafts, such as the F/A-22, all of which are currently earmarked for active-component units.

The test program is just another component in this multi-faceted process for which many outside the NGB are eager for the elusive details.

"This is a huge leap forward towards Future Total Force for the Air Force," said Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, NGB chief, at the press conference.

"In fact," he said, "we've got to be able to overcome those kinds of manning obstacles we've lived with tor too many years so that we can get to a point where we can capitalize all the human resources we have in the active, Reserve and National Guard Air Force."

Reaction varied outside the Pentagon.

"If there's a concern, it is that major follow-on decisions should not be left to the empirical data gathered from these rather small, incremental test cases," said Retired Brig. Gen. Stephen Koper, NGAUS president. "I would suggest that the adjutants general be fully involved in the evaluation of the results and be an integral part of the total analysis of this operation."

While officials knew some changes were in the works, the announcement was rather sudden.

"They kind of launched it out of the blue," Koper said. "Everybody knew the details of it in terms of the Air Force and the Air National Guard and the adjutants general, but a news conference to launch it was a little bit of a surprise."

Koper added that the specific action items weren't surprising and can be invaluable to study the potential of new missions. But the test cases also could prompt possible alternatives to the current configuration.

"Quite frankly, one of the things that we're going to be confronting the Air Force over is the speed of the conversion," said Maj. Gen. Roger E Lempke, Nebraska's adjutant general and Adjutants General Association vice president. "And I think we're going to kind of have a fight there, because the Air Force obviously wants to rid themselves of the legacy aircraft as soon as they can, so they can save money so they can modernize."

In the plan, a small number of personnel from the Virginia Air Guard's 192nd Fighter Wing from Richmond will join the active duty's 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Va., to fly the F/A-22.

"Community basing" will begin, as the Air Force stations some active-duty personnel at Vermont's 158th Fighter Wing. (Maj. Gen. Martha T Rainville, adjutant general of Vermont and then-NGAUS' vice chair for Air, endorsed this concept in NATIONAL GUARD last year citing "greater basing efficiency" and the ability of the Air Guard "to train and mentor less experienced active-component personnel.")

The test program will bring the Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to the Texas and Arizona Air Guards. And the New York Air Guard will work with the Army in a future intelligence information station in New York.

Air Guard and Reserve forces also will integrate into all mission areas of the Air Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. In addition, the Air Force Reserve's 419th Fighter Wing will integrate with the active-duty's 388th fighter Wing.

Lt. Gen. Stephen G. Wood, Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, said many factors are still unclear about the Air Force's future, particularly with a new round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) on the horizon.

In addition, a significant reduction in the Air Force's overall aircraft fleet is imminent.

Consequently, the test programs answer few questions about the future of Air Guard equipment, bases and resources.

"We don't want to talk bases right now because we have BRAC constraints and other things to consider, so what we're doing we're putting together a team that's going to get together with folks from the leadership of [a] state-and determine where the best place to put these are," said Lt. Gen. Daniel James III, Air Guard director.

Wood said this would take time.

"Our plan right now for the near term is not to have any reduction of aircraft," he said. "We're doing test initiatives here; we don't know all the answers to this yet."

Wood also said teams would continue working the issue to develop a model in the long term, but he offered no timeline.