We\'re all getting older but the fleet is doing it

[Bill Straw]

The following was from a note from the President of the AF Association and whould scare the .... out of us if we think the F-15 problem is the only one out there.

January 16, 2008

AFA members and Congressional Staffers, many of you have commented favorably on the \"elevator speech numbers\" I sent you.

It\'s January ... so here are some revealing data on the \"State of the Air Force.\"

Fighter Aircraft - average age: 20 years; average flight hours 5400+

Bomber Aircraft - average age: 32 years; average flight hours 11,400+

Tanker aircraft - average age: 44 years; average flight hours 18,900+

C2 Fleet - average age: 22 years old; average flight hours 32,000

ISR Fleet (excluding UAV) - average age: 30 years old; average flight hours 18,000

Key Groundings/Restrictions

F-15A-D - 163 of 441 are grounded for structural issues

B-52 - 6 are grounded - past due PDM grounding date - authorized a one-time flight to the bone-yard.

EC-130 - 2 of 14 are grounded due to center wing box cracks

C-130E - 3 are grounded and 13 are restricted due to Service life and wing cracks

KC-135Es - 26 of 86 are grounded due to engine strut corrosion.

AC-130U - 4 of 17 are restricted due to lack of 30MM weapons

B-2 - entire fleet is restricted due to windshield bolt hole cracks

C-5s - 39 of 108 are restricted due to crown skin restrictions (weight limiting)

Additionally:

219 of 223 F-15Es have training restrictions due to vertical stab structural issues

Majority of Block 25/30/32, block 40/42, and block 50/52 F-16s need structural modifications

All 356 A-10s will need new wings and new aircraft skin - many have landing gear issues ... and all need new engines.

C-130Hs have Center Wing Box issues

C-32As have bulkhead structural issues.

Looking across the FYDP - between 2008-2013 - the Air Force will divest itself of 749 aircraft and procure only 698 aircraft (260 of which are UAVs).

To give you the idea of the scale of all of this:

When the AF grounded its 600+ F-15 fleet, it grounded more aircraft than the entire F/A Navy. The F-15s it presently has grounded equate to a bit more than 3 aircraft carriers of aircraft.

The 356 A-10s that need renovations equates to more aircraft than the fixed wing USMC

The Air Force has about 5800 aircraft ... and presently about one-third are either grounded or restricted in one way or another

The central important part of this data is that this is not a third-world Air Force ... And the question we should ask ourselves, why don\'t we fund it to ensure our children and grandchildren are safe and secure?

2nd Subject -

Chief of Staff White Paper - Gen Moseley published an exceptional White Paper ... which lays out the strategic foundations for the Air Force of the future. If you haven\'t seen it, you can find it on the AFA website: http://dailyreport.afa.org/NR/rdonlyres/868196FC-AABB-4230-84EA-F5358B0C4B34/0/CSAF_white_paper.pdf

My favorite quotes in it are:

\"No modern war has been won without air superiority. No future war will be won without air, space and cyberspace superiority.\" Page 2.

\"With the oldest inventory in history, battered by 17 years of continuous combat, the Air Force\'s ability to fulfill its missions is already being tested.\" Page 2

\"... our reliance on assured access to space will increase exponentially.\" Page 8

\"The Air Force is smaller in December 2007 than it was in December 1941.\" Page 10

For your consideration.

Mike

Michael M. Dunn, Lt Gen (Ret)

AFA President/CEO

[jetcal1]

It boils down to money.

[Dan Wilson]

Fighter Aircraft

Bomber Aircraft

Tanker aircraft

C2 Fleet

ISR Fleet

Where are the cargo aircraft? ISR maybe? I dont have a clue what ISR means

Key Groundings/Restrictions

C-130E - 3 are grounded and 13 are restricted due to Service life and wing cracks

Seems like there are a whole bunch more than 3 E models grounded and 13 restricted!

Yes it all boils down to money but you could say it all boils down to corruption and fleet mismanagement and be even more correct.

The cost of an airplane is nowhere near what the contractors are charging, the air force just happily goes ahead and shucks out the money for them, who cares if the companies are making 130,000% profit.

Just like drug companies that charge 400 bucks for a bottle of 30 pills and whine about R&D costs even though they made all that back in the first four months...

Just pure greed

Just like the J model, it doesn\'t make fiscal sense. Not going to get into a bash on \"it needs more crew positions\", or \"cant do the mission \"or whatever but look at it, you can buy a J for 60 MILLION (probably more by now) or you can replace the center wing boxes on 25 for 30 E and H models for the same cost. You could probably fully amp and zero time an E or H for less than 20 mil and effectively get three for the price of one.

I do believe it was Eisenhower that warned about the American military industrial complex and how much power it had, he has yet to be proven wrong.

Difference is now, with two wars going on and China and Iran looming big in the future, their greed will in the end cost this country much more than dollars.

Dan

[KF4DVG]

ISR : intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance

I.E.... RC-135, EC-135, JSTARS, GUARDRAIL, EP-3 and I\'m sure a whole bunch of others including the C-130

Hate to see the a/c in such bad shape.... I guess without planes, the Air Force is just, well, \"The Army\".

Bob

[RZHill]

AS I have \"ranted\" for years the Reserve forces, being comprised of mostly civilian members that have had to \"work a real job\" for a living and who know how to pinch a penny or two had the foresight to procure thru their congressmen the proper equipment for their forces. Then comes BRAC, the Active duty\'s method to strip these assets and try to cover for it\'s lack of forsight.

SO SAD , Who suffers, The great crews and Maintenance folks that have to maintain and fly these worn out pieces of equipment.

It\'s funny that most of the E\'s flying have come from the reserve forces and have been rebuilt over the years using reserve force money.

RZ HILL

[jetcal1]

I agree it\'s more than the money, and we can point the finger in a lot of places. I do hold congress and the DoD responsible. There are too many folks who will kill a program to boost something in their district and too many little mafias in the DoD. I don\'t know why but for some reason, I still expect ethics.

The Mantra right now seems to be cut personnel to buy the weapons. That\'s great but who is going to fly and fix?

Oh, and incidentally people will get out because of working conditions and deployments. It’s hard to stay motivated as a maintainer.

I cannot speak to the air force, as a retired navy guy, I am watching what the navy is doing to LCS [Littoral Combat Ship]. Overbudget, gold plated and late. The navy will get a ship that is so undermanned they will not be able fight the ship and control any battle damage that occurs at the same time. But think of the money they\'ll save in personnel costs.

Okay, I have ranted too much.

Okay, I\'m not done yet. I just found this.

We have no money to fix grounded airplanes, but money to brew beer in GERMANY. Thank god, because we all know how hard it is to get good beer in Germany.

35 -- MICROBREWERY PURCHASE

General Information

Document Type: Combine Solicitation

Solicitation Number: Reference-Number-RWK011608BL

Posted Date: Jan 16, 2008

Original Response Date: Jan 28, 2008

Current Response Date: Jan 28, 2008

Original Archive Date:

Current Archive Date:

Classification Code: 35 -- Service and trade equipment

Naics Code: 312120 -- Breweries

Contracting Office Address

Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - Eglin Research Site, 101 West Eglin Blvd Suite 337, Eglin AFB, FL, 32542-6810, UNITED STATES

Description

The Government seeks to make a commercial purchase of 3 complete sets of microbrewery equipment FOB to specified Meppen, Germany facility to meet an immediate need.