The armed forces of the U.K., the U.S.'s biggest military ally, will need billions of dollars more than they have to spend, according to a government audit report, requiring what analysts say will be fundamental cuts to operations...

With Britain battling a record budget deficit, many political analysts say funding for the armed services will fall rather than increase...

The report underscores an evergreen criticism of modern British governments: that they ask their armed forces to project a global military presence without giving them the financial backing to do so.

Is America under funding our military while expecting them to maintain a global presence? At first glance, the answer is no.

Page one of Defense News reported on yesterday President Obama and the congress added $100 billion dollars to the defense budget to...

...cover the rising cost of operations, personnel and pressing modernization needs, officials said.

If approved by Congress, the money would allow defense spending to rise about 1 percent above projected inflation, analysts said.

DoD’s 2010 budget request called for $534 billion, plus $130 billion to cover the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq...

Among other procurement efforts, the money will pay for new Air Force global strike programs — including work on new manned and unmanned systems — Army brigade combat team modernization, a Navy attack submarine and the Navy’s new Carrier Long-Range Strike system, sources said...

Analysts called the decision a victory for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has lobbied the White House for more funding.

At first blush, this appears to the act of a government backing its resolution with teeth as it sends men and women abroad in harms way. However, a closer look reveals this spending bill does not include...

...the estimated $30 billion that will be needed to fund President Barack Obama’s recent decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Now the Hill reports there is even less in this spending bill for the Pentagon to accomplish its missions...

The defense-spending bill written by Congress ignores cuts to several high-profile Pentagon programs proposed by the Obama administration...includes money for the General Electric-Rolls-Royce alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and for 10 additional Boeing C-17 cargo planes...It also includes a lifeline of sorts for the VH-71 presidential helicopter, which the administration has canceled due to cost concerns.

The Pentagon did not ask for money to continue any of these programs. The funding for the three programs makes up about $3.1 billion in the $636.3 billion Pentagon-spending bill agreed to by congressional negotiators.

Gates also told the Senate that he strongly opposed the $2.5 billion for 10 additional C-17s....But Democrats are also looking to the defense bill as a vehicle to raise the country’s debt ceiling and to extend unemployment benefits and healthcare insurance subsidies for the long-term jobless.

So it is unlikely that Obama will end up vetoing the bill, despite the previous threats.

There it is. These initiatives won’t fund the president’s war surge or critical programs identified by the Pentagon and Secretary of Defense. This bill is one big pork-barrel trough for initiatives already rejected by the president, the Secretary of Defense, and the generals in the Pentagon. Its also a domestic spending bill disguised as a defense bill. After this bill is signed a few contactors in key districts will benefit and the troops will get equipment they don’t want or need.  

The U.K. is only a few paces down the road to Hell ahead of us. In a few more budget cycles we’ll be in the same place. Every precious dollar congress spends on pork and not on real defense requirements is a bill our troops will pay later - when they’re stranded overseas and no one has their back. 

Our economic collapse will quickly be followed by our military collapse...unless the citizens of this nation reign in the mafia we call Congress.

Last week the US Government absorbed almost a trillion dollars of the most noxious corporate debt imaginable. To put it in perspective, the government has an annual operating budget of about three trillion dollars and only takes in about 2.7 trillion in revenue. This new debt is equivalent to almost three annual defense budgets! Overnight, the US federal debt leapt by at least a ten percent. Whatever budget estimates and expectations Pentagon leadership had up to this point can be thrown out. It’s a new fiscal ball game.

In my article, “Entitlements Threaten Defense Spending” (Townhall Magazine, September 2008) I likened entitlement spending, like Medicare, to a tsunami of red ink poised to crush the defense budget. With this week’s unprecedented corporate bailout packages our nation effectively ran out to meet that giant wave.  If the republic is to survive something will have to give.

That something will be defense, the biggest slice of the non-discretionary federal budget. Congress and the next president will have to cut federal spending in order to service this new debt. If they don’t, they risk potentially destroying America’s currency and credit rating – bad, very bad. 

Those staffers will tell the Pentagon budget planners (those working on something called the ‘POM’) to start planning deep cuts. They’ll give these planners draconian bottom lines and tell them to meet them - period. The planners will start a series of budget drills and the real fun begins.

Over the next few months rumors of the deep budget cuts will seep outside the Pentagon. Small programs, big programs – nothing will be sacred. The defense budget will be so different next year it as to be almost unrecognizable.

The Air Force will get hit hardest since it’s currently the least favored branch among the political elites. Since the new aerial tanker was punted to the next administration it’s uniquely vulnerable. I believe by this time next year it will be on indefinite hold and some token funds will be thrown at the old KC-135 to extend its life a few more years.  Don’t hold your breath on a new replacement rescue helicopter. I believe that program is doomed now. Expect early retirement for various weapons systems those with high operating costs, perhaps like the B-1 bomber.  

I cannot speak to the specifics of the other services, but they’ll get hit hard, too. Even the Army and the Marines, the most engaged in combat operations, will feel the heat. It won’t just be weapons acquisition programs, either. Personnel program cuts will be close behind.

I’m not talking about tweaks in the system, but sudden and draconian cuts. It will start with pronouncements on cutting travel costs. Then they’ll cut medical costs in new and painful ways. Tricare will eventually pay pennies on the dollar as co-pays for dependant medical care skyrockets. There will be drastic rollbacks in retiree medical benefits and huge shake-ups of the retirement system itself. Then the real cuts will begin.

The Navy and Air Force will resume their downward force cuts to unprecedented levels, perhaps in the range of 250,000 for each service. The additional forces added to the Marines and Army since 2003 will be rescinded. There may even be serious consideration of consolidating the services. I believe in 3-5 years we’ll find the military 25% smaller…at least.

With all these force cuts, how will we fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

We won’t. With this new, staggering debt load members of both political parties will accelerate our departure from Iraq and even Afghanistan, regardless of the political and military consequences. Only a token naval and air power component will remain in the Gulf Region to protect the oil. Expect withdrawal of forces from most of the Pacific and Europe as well.

(The picture brightens showing a stop watch with the familiar ‘tick tick tick’ sound.)

ANNOUCER: Tonight on 50 Minutes. Unbeknownst to an unsuspecting country, half a century ago he and American’s most powerful public figures left earth on an alien spacecraft. Tonight, on a 50 Minutes exclusive, Air Force General Curtis LeMay speaks for the first time after returning to earth.

(Katie sits in a high director’s chair, facing an expressionless LeMay in full uniform, four silver stars gleam on his shoulder. He looks like he did in the early 1960s, also sitting in a director’s chair with a lit stogie clenched in his teeth.)

COURIC: General LeMay, America was astonished when you and half a dozen great Americans emerged from (cough) from the (cough)…General? Could you please extinguish that cigar? It’s against New York City law and CBS policy to smoke in a place of business.

(LeMay stares at her expressionless, saying nothing. He rolls the fat cigar around to the other side of his mouth. )

COURIC: Uh…okay. I think we can make an exception since you’ve been gone a long time.

LEMAY: A week.

COURIC: Excuse me?

LEMAY: I’ve been gone a week. Travel at near the speed of light has some interesting side effects. Einstein was right. Smart guy. He gave me this Cuban cigar, a damn fine one at that. He gave the aliens a box of Cubans, too.

COURIC: The aliens smoke?

LEMAY: Not all the time, only when they’re drinking.

COURIC: Why did the aliens take you and the others?

LEMAY: We were a diplomatic and trade delegation. 

COURIC: So what was your role? You were, are…a…a military officer. What would an advanced race of space faring aliens want with you?

LEMAY: (pauses and looks at her expressionlessly) Well, missy, they’re like anyone else. They have enemies, very bad enemies. They were amazed how fast we adopted aerospace power for defense. They thought some of our tactics were fairly advanced. I was a military liaison helping them apply airpower doctrine to their space/time faring technology. Funny thing, they didn’t take any reporters.

COURIC: (blinks and continues) Can you tell us about their technology, other than what we already know?

LEMAY: No, other than the fact we were supposed to bring a lot of it home before the deal fell through. We were supposed to stay for two weeks.

COURIC: Why did the deal fall through? Does this have anything to do with how fast the spacecraft departed after it landed and deposited you and the others on the Mall in Washington DC?

LEMAY: About four days after we left my host officer came and got us during a poker game we were having with some of the aliens. He said something bad was happening back on earth and they were turning the ship around. He showed us television broadcasts from earth and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought we could still salvage the mission, but once our hosts showed us a broadcast of “Different Strokes” I knew it was over. They called off the deal and said, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” They dropped us off and wished us good luck trying to straighten this mess out.

(Couric is silent, jaw agape.)

LEMAY: Great bunch of guys. Short, smart, and can handle their booze. They make great pilots. They only kept two of the documents we brought them, though. I’ll think they’ll come back once they run out of scotch and Cubans.  

COURIC: What were the documents they kept?

LEMAY: The Bible and the Constitution.

(Couric is stunned, a look of shocked disbelief on her face.)

LEMAY: You look a little pale, there, young lady. Are you okay?

COURIC: Uhmm, yes, uh….are these the same aliens which crashed in Roswell and have been abducting humans for years?

LEMAY: Yea, they had a forced landing at Roswell. Engine trouble, but any landing you can walk away from is a good one...they laughed when I told them that one! They were our guest for a few years and helped us set up the trade delegation. ‘Abduction’ is a strong term, they just wanted to meet the common folk. We told them what good people we had in our heartland and they wanted to find out for themselves.

COURIC: Abductees have told stories of horrible experiments, even anal probes! How is this ‘meeting the common folk’?!

LEMAY: Calm down, missy. The aliens are aviators. Each spacecraft has its own flight surgeon. They’ve got silly regulations just like we do. Everyone who boards and flies on one of their craft must undergo an annual flight physical. Those physicals entail a prostate examine and those buggers have fingers as big as their eyes! The bad part is the annual examine is based on earth time, not spacecraft time. That came out to seven prostrate exams a day for us. Ever few hours they’d walk in and say, ‘General LeMay, time for your annual flight physical.’ Damn if I could talk them out of it. ‘Regulations are regulations, General LeMay, you of all people should understand that,’ they’d say. (He squirms in his seat and looks uncomfortable) You’re fortunate I was able to sit down for this interview.

COURIC: Thank you for that information, general, but it was more than I needed to know. You ran for the vice presidency with George Wallace in 1968 and died in 1990. How can this be if you were with aliens that whole time?

LEMAY: That was a robot the aliens left to take my place. Unfortunately, it had a bad reaction to boiled peanuts and turned evil. I take no responsibility for any of its actions.

COURIC: How do we know you’re not an evil robot?

LEMAY: You don’t. Next question.

(Couric’s eyes are wide, silence.)

LEMAY: Missy, I’m a busy man. Are you going to sit there and stare at me all day or are you going to ask me questions?

COURIC: You’ve been reinstated as the new Chief of Staff for the Air Force, the same post you held in 1961. Why did they ask you to come back?

LEMAY: Because my Air Force is broken and I’m going to fix it.

COURIC: How is it broken?

LEMAY: What’s broken!?  Did anyone notice you are flying a lot of the same damn aircraft we were flying back in 1961?

COURIC: Is that a problem?

LEMAY: Missy, would you feel comfortable flying coast to coast in a 1950’s era 707?

COURIC: I don’t know, but aren’t you comparing apples and oranges?

LEMAY: Any old apple will get you from New York to L.A. Any old orange won’t deliver airpower from continent to continent (takes out his cigar and shakes it for effect). We left you kids a world class air force and the world’s best aerospace industry. Back then we had several dozen companies making a slew of advanced fighters and bombers. Now we’re down to basically Boeing and Lockheed. Europe is kicking our as* and selling us our helicopters, tankers and airliners. What the HELL have you all been doing for the last half century? We were about to land of the moon and now I learn we haven’t been back since 1972 and the damn Communist Chinese might beat us back. You know, Boeing gave us the KC-135 and B-52, combat ready, about 5 years after we signed the contracts. Christ Almighty, you…you...you peoplecan’t even choose a tanker in under a decade. Well, let me tell you, as my first decision I’m going to pick one tomorrow.

COURIC: Do you have that authority?

LEMAY: Yes. Next question.

COURIC: Will you tell me what your decision will be?

LEMAY: No. Next question.

COURIC: (looking flustered) What other problems are you going to tackle?

LEMAY: I’m going to scrap this “Expeditionary Air Force” crap.

COURIC: Can you elaborate on that statement?

LEMAY: Sure, missy. Living in tents and flying tactical aircraft across borders and back was against everything we were trying to build back in the 1950s and 60s. We envisioned a strategic air force which launched from CONUS, could fly to any point of the globe, strike at will, and return. An overseas foot print on the ground is a liability. We didn’t have the technology to fully realize that vision back then. Today, you have that technology, but instead you’re playing in the sand with the Army.

COURIC: I’m not schooled in military matters. But my sources tell me our ground forces want the Air Force to concentrate more on ground support roles.

LEMAY: The Army wants the finger and eye of God Himself, nothing less. They want us to magically smite their enemies from the heavens at the click of a radio. I can give them that, but they don’t tell me how to do it. I’ve got a bigger picture and they are only one part of it. That’s not what you call ‘politically correct’ these days. Speaking of politically correct, folks today don’t admit when they screw up. I screwed up when I played a part in our biggest mistake back in 1947. Then, we let the other services keep their aircraft. Dumb. If it involves powered flight, it should belong to the Air Force. Period.  

COURIC: Isn’t that a politically risky stance?

LEMAY: Yes, but they worst they can do is fire me. Hell, I got four stars on my shoulder. I think I can stand a few bumps and bruises.

COURIC: You’re very outspoken, General LeMay, but some say you’re a bit of a anachronism, a dinosaur, a relic of a bygone era.

LEMAY: Who said that?

COURIC: I can’t divulge my sources.

LEMAY: I see reporters are still spineless weasels. What you’re saying is you think I’m a dinosaur. Dinosaurs were giants who strode the world like they owned it for millions of years. They apologized for nothing and ate those who pissed them off. It took God himself to wipe them out. I guess I’m a dinosaur, missy, so don’t pi** me off.

COURIC: Please, don’t call me ‘missy’.

LEMAY: Sure, sweetie (He blows a puff of smoke, his face expressionless but his eyes are twinkling.)

(Couric’s eyes narrow as she tries to keep her cool. In slow, measured tones she continues.)

COURIC: What is your opinion of women in combat?

LEMAY: Dumb.

(Couric smiles, and eagerly continues in a ‘gotch’ya’ manner.)

COURIC: Isn’t that a slap at all the brave women serving in combat today?

LEMAY: No, it’s just a statement of fact. You people have been living off the security my generation bought for you. You’ve been insulated in a nearly consequence-free existence. You think, therefore, you can place women in combat and not reap the consequences. No women have had their heads chopped of on Al Jazzera, no women have been dragged through streets of Baghdad. Yes, some women have died bravely in the line of duty but it hasn’t been en masse. When that happens, and it will, the second worst thing which could happen is America seeing the folly of its ‘women in combat’ policy.

COURIC: What’s the worst thing which could happen?

LEMAY: America doesn’t see the folly of this policy. You people are so confused you don’t even know the natural differences between the sexes.

(Couric is obviously perturbed.)

 COURIC: Can we assume, then, you will pull women from combat roles in the air force?

 LEMAY: Absolutely not. 

(Couric looks down and shuffles her papers, not quiet sure how to take what she just heard.)  

COURIC: I see. There has been much progress in civil rights since you left. African-Americans now serve in every capacity alongside whites not only in the Air Force, but in society as a whole. What are your thoughts on this?

LEMAY: Good, it’s about time.

COURIC: Didn’t you support racist policies, like those of George Wallace?

LEMAY: No. Evil robot on boiled peanuts. Remember? 

(Couric shakes her head and looks off camera at her producer as if you say “You’ve got to be kidding me.”) 

COURIC: Uh…um...okay (shuffles her notes again and tries to regain her composure) What are some other changes you’ll be making as the new Air Force chief of staff?

LEMAY: I’m reinstating Strategic Air Command and ordering our missiles and bombers back on alert.  

COURIC: Isn’t that an unnecessarily provocative move?! We’ve been at peace with Russia for years. 

LEMAY: Who said anything about Russia? I’m placing bombers on airborne alert at fail safe points just outside Iranian airspace. If they want to play in the big leagues, so be it.

COURIC: Who granted you that authority? 

LEMAY: The president, that’s who. The Supreme Court agreed he didn’t serve out his term, so bingo, he’s back in. 

COURIC: Yes…I see. Since John F. Kennedy was reinstated as president we’ve seen many…uh…unexpected changes. How do you think Iran will react to this move?

LEMAY: I don’t care how they react. You people should have obliterated them back in 1979 when they occupied our embassy, a flagrant act of war. That was the second biggest mistake you people made since we left.

COURIC: (sighs) I’m afraid to ask, but I have too. What was our biggest mistake, general?

LEMAY: It was either exporting your industrial base to China or importing “Survivor” from England. I haven’t made up my mind which is worse. I think the Brits are great, but never import their food, dental work, or television.

COURIC: Sir, is there anything America or the air force has done since you left of which you approve? Have we done anything right in the last half century?

LEMAY: I like what you’ve done with unmanned aircraft. The Global Hawk is a fantastic weapon system. Stealth, precision engagement…great capabilities, too. On the civilian side, you’ve done great things with medicine. Don’t, however, expect me to sit here and pat you kids on head. You’ve screwed up and royally. We were practically energy independent when I left. Now you buy your oil from the very people who want us dead and refuse to look for oil yourselves. Damn fools, the lot of you.  

COURIC: (Looks sternly at him) Many Americans would disagree with you. Aren’t you overstepping the political boundaries of a military officer?

 LEMAY: (Takes his cigar out, leans forward and speaks in slow measured tones) Of course many Americans disagree with me, but thanks to you people wrecking our education system many of those same idiots can’t find their state on a map. I won’t suffer fools and I refuse keep my mouth shut. I’m going to help the president put a stake through the heart of this “political correctness” crap, which is just another name for good old fashioned communism. And you idiots bought it. (Leans back and puts the cigar back in his mouth) And yes, I am overstepping the bounds of what a military officer should say politically. Therefore, I’ll leave those issues to the president.

COURIC: (Snaps a wicked glare off the set at her producer and angrily reshuffles her papers) I see. What exactly is your relationship with the new President?

LEMAY: (Waives affably and smiles around his cigar) Great man, we really got to know each other on the trip. We’ve had our differences in the past, but when we saw how screwed up America has become we settled those and agreed on how to fix them. I think him and the first lady are great people.

COURIC: (Obviously glad to change subjects, her mood lightens) Many were shocked to see Marilyn Monroe emerge from the alien spacecraft at JFK’s side. We all assumed she died back in 1962. We were even more surprised when the President announced they were getting married.

LEMAY: No, Marilyn really did die back then. The first lady is an alien robot. The aliens are a creative bunch, God bless ‘em.

COURIC: (Pauses, jaw open) The First Lady of the United States is an alien robot?

LEMAY: An evil alien robot, to boot! Heh heh! (The general rolls his cigar in his fingers and looks off into the distance as if he’s somewhere else and mumbles….) She’s an evil, naughty alien robot…very naughty…

COURIC: (Looks disgusted) General? General LeeeMaaayyy!

LEMAY: (The general snaps back to the present, smiles, and puts the cigar back in his mouth) Unfortunately, the delegation members outlived most of our friends and relations back here on earth, including our spouses. It’s not good for a man to be alone and the aliens knew this. They asked the president, our leader, who he wanted the companion-bot modeled on. He came up with Ms. Monroe. Einstein thought it was a hoot, he couldn't stop laughing for a day!

COURIC: That’s disgusting!

LEMAY: (Looks Katie up and down) You know, toots, I’m back in circulation. How about you and me grab some chow and I’ll tell you what it was like to firebomb Tokyo.

(Katie stares in disbelief. Image fades and is replaced with stopwatch ‘tick tick tick’ sound.)

ANNOUCER: Next on 50 Minutes, Morely Safer interviews President John F. Kennedy and the new first lady.

SAFER: (Thoughtfully strokes his chin) Mrs. Kennedy, is it true you are an evil alien robot?

MONROE (MRS. KENNEDY): (Pouting and looking very hot) “I’m not bad, I’m just built that way.”

SAFER: Mr. President, doesn’t it disturb you your wife, the First Lady of our nation, is an alien robot?

KENNEDY: (Looking as young and vibrant as he did during Nixon/Kennedy debates, he has an enormous grin on his face. He holds a small paper bag out to Marilyn.) Why don’t you have another boiled peanut, darling? 

The Government Accounting Office upheld Boeing’s tanker contract protest. In the latest Air Force Times article “Tanker Travesty” the GAO cites at least seven major areas where the Air Force didn’t follow its own process. The article says the tanker decision could be delayed another 1 to 3 years and it may take a decade to fix the acquisitions system.

The Air Force is bleeding. It’s bleeding like the Black Knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Even worse, the service is the one holding the sword, cutting off its own limbs and mumbling, “It’s only a flesh wound.”

The service doesn’t have a decade to fix the system nor can it afford another multiyear tanker delay. The budget window is starting to close. The bleeding must stop now, but how?

Come with me to the Land of Make Believe. In this bizarre, alternate universe someone in a blue uniform with lots of stars on their shoulders is about to hold a press conference, let’s listen in:    

“Good morning. Recently, the Government Accounting Office upheld Boeing’s protest of the Air Force’s awarding of the new aerial tanker contract to Northrop-EADS. We’ve carefully reviewed the GAO ruling and concur with each and everyone one of their findings. We screwed up. As the man in charge, I take full responsibility.  

I’ve ordered a complete overhaul of our acquisitions process to ensure this never happens again. I’ve also ordered this review be conducted by outside experts. With this being said, I must keep in mind why the service started the process to find a new tanker over a decade ago.  

The KC-135 is a reliable and remarkable warhorse, but it’s approaching half a century of service. I cannot, in good conscious, ask these brave men and women to conduct combat operations for another twenty years in a certifiable antique. The needs of the mission and those who fly combat day-in and day-out must take precedence over procedural considerations. Therefore, I’ve ordered the Air Force to immediately proceed with the contract as awarded. I do not make this decision lightly and do so based on extraordinary circumstances: We are an Air Force at war and the KC-135 is become too old to conduct sustained combat operations for another two decades.  

Both Northrop-EADS and Boeing presented outstanding bids. Either platform would make a worthy successor to the venerable KC-135. However, the service can ill-afford yet another lengthy delay delivering new, desperately needed, combat iron to our aircrews. I understand this not ideal. I know there will be calls for the competition to be re-bid in the interest of ‘fairness.’ However, I ask our elected political leaders, the two corporations involved, and the American taxpayer to consider what is fair for the men and women performing this difficult mission as well as the countless warfighters depending on the capability they provide. There is a higher cause I must honor, and therefore, why I had to make this difficult choice.  

In return, I promise to fix this broken system and to do so within one year. We must restore America’s faith in the Air Force’s ability to field new major weapon systems in a timely, fair and cost effective manner.  

It’s time to press on with the mission. Thank you, I’ll take a few questions.”

In the Land of Make Believe, Airmen from Alaska to Afghanistan stand up and cheer.  

Of course, this scene is completely fictional and not intended to resemble any person, living or dead (at least in this dimension.) However, could anything like this ever happen in our universe? Like comedian Steve Martin used to say on the original Saturday Night Live…Naw! It’s too politically risky. Congress will howl. Boeing will howl. The media will howl. Such action would bring too much heat to bear on an already wounded service.

The only people who won’t howl are the Airmen doing the mission, they'll rightfully salute and press on.

Sadly, the service will attempt to fix its acquisition system by throwing more money at it. They’ll hire more people to write new processes to fix the old processes. Regulations and instructions will multiply and grow more complicated. Smart corporate lawyers will find new loopholes and oversights and lay more protests at the GAO’s feet. The GAO will thoroughly review each and the cycle will begin anew.

And the bleeding will continue.

Shameful.

The U.S. Air Force is in dire straits, an organization in crisis by any measure. The warning signs are shocking:

- In 2002 it mismanaged the KC-X competition resulting in a senior acquisitions official going to jail.

- The CSARX rescue helicopter competition, delayed for over two years, is still mired in political and legal battles.

- The service cut almost 15% of its total manpower in order to modernize equipment, only to end up with a smaller force and little modernization. 

- Another high ranking acquisitions official committed suicide over another brewing scandal.

- The Air Force unknowingly loaded nuclear weapons on a bomber and flew it across the country.

- It lost track of other nuclear components, mistakenly sending them to Taiwan.  

- The service can only buy half the F-22s it needs to fulfill its stated requirements.

- Recently, the chief of staff and secretary of the Air Forces were sacked, the first time in history the two top positions in a military service were simultaneously fired.

- It lost track of another 1000 nuclear weapons components.

- Now, it botched up the new aerial tanker contract again.

From 1990 to 2012 the service squandered its only opportunity to modernize. It’s facing the same looming budget disaster as the rest of the nation. Starting in 2012 Social Security and Medicare will start sucking the federal budget dry, closing the door on major force modernization. Between entitlements and endless wars the service will find it nearly impossible to build the 21^st century force it so desperately needs. They are in hole they may not be able to climb out of.

Was it strictly the services fault? No, but most of the blame falls squarely in their lap. How did it come to this?

Lack of Strategic Thinking. The service rewards tactical thinking, focusing only one or two budget cycles in the future.

Lack of Common Identity. There is no common cultural lynchpin which binds all Airmen the way the other services are unified. The Air Force has a fractured culture for two reasons: it’s a service of ‘program managers,’ stove-piped into specific career fields and weapons systems; and because most ‘Airmen’ have nothing to do with aviation.

The service lost control to a self-serving bureaucracy. The Air Force’s requirements and acquisitions system serves congress and their lobbyist. It serves the contractors. It serves the armies of civil servants in Washington and the Pentagon. The system serves everyone except the warfighters in the field and therefore, in the long run truly serves the interest of our adversaries. Our ‘peer rivals’ only need to wait us out as the bureaucracy does nothing and our fleet rots. 

The Air Force has become a service of stewards, not innovators. With few exceptions, the service no longer blazes new aviation trails. The few new programs in existence were started many years ago and many of those are in trouble. It’s not just a question of funding, but of cultural willingness to take risks.

Lack of combat aviation leadership. Deployments and combat are not the same, this distinction is blurred in the service. Fewer and fewer people running the show and pulling the levers of power are combat veterans, let alone combat aviators. Being combat aircrew actually hinders one’s chances of advancement – they are just too busy to ‘fill the squares.’ Why is this important? Combat aviators approach problems with a purpose driven perspective. Many bureaucrats running the service today are process driven and don’t understand those flying the front lines. Basic aviation concepts, from the way aircrew solve problems to fight battles, are alien to most Airmen.

Rampant Careerism. Way too many officers are too concerned with punching a ticket and moving on. Innovation and change require courage to make mistakes. Mistakes kill careers. Therefore, most play it safe, move on, and move up. Challenging times call for big, bold decisions. Instead, our staffs are filled with bureaucrats tending aging fleets and floundering programs. 

I am beginning to doubt the US Air Force can endure as a separate military service.

These are tough words, but these are tough times.