Today, the United States Air Force is the smallest we’ve been since our inception in 1947. Our aircraft are the oldest they’ve ever been with an average age of 27 and many fleets are substantially older. As a result of 25 years of sustained combat operations, more than half of our combat Air Force is not sufficiently ready for a high-end fight—a fight against an enemy with complex integrated air defenses, surface to air missiles, and the capability to shoot us down. Meanwhile, demand for Air Force capabilities continues to grow around the world; the Air Force is making significant contributions in the fight against ISIL, reassuring allies in Europe and the Pacific against a resurgent Russia and an assertive China, providing humanitarian relief when disaster strikes and protecting our homeland. We’re doing all this while simultaneously facing enormous budget challenges here at home.
Right now, the United States Congress is at a pivotal point in negotiations concerning defense funding and policy bills. We need help from Congress to win today’s fight and plan for the difficult fights we might encounter tomorrow.
{mosads}The first, and biggest, step to help all the military services would be to lift sequestration, which has caused unnecessary harm across the U.S. military. In parallel, the Air Force also needs greater flexibility to manage our large and complex enterprise going forward.
Several provisions in the proposed National Defense Authorization Act would prevent us from reacting to budget shortfalls by shifting money and people to the places where we need them most, or gradually retiring older aircraft. Unless these restrictions are lifted or modified we won’t be able to free up enough dollars and people to reinvest in our future needs and our current readiness. One case in point: Congressional directives to retain all of our older A-10 and EC-130 aircraft do not allow the Air Force to cross train sufficient numbers of experienced maintenance personnel to support fielding the new F-35 which is the future of our fighter force.
A similar dynamic could play out in space, where we have established an enviable record of successful launches of military satellites that are essential to every American warfighter. We call this “assured access to space”. We’ve also worked hard to introduce competition to drive down costs in the space business and we’re committed to eliminating reliance on a Russian engine. While we develop a new domestic rocket engine and launch system capable of lifting a wide variety of military systems into space, we must have sufficient flexibility in the program or we could risk losing assured access to space, diminishing competition to reduce space launch costs, or both.
While hardware and technology are important, people are more so. Congress has proposed cutting and streamlining headquarters staffs dramatically in the next few years. We happen to agree with the idea that the military branches should strive to organize themselves in the most efficient way possible. The USAF has achieved significant staff cuts and reorganizations over the last year and any further directed reductions should give credit for the reductions we’ve already taken.
Additionally, the Senate-proposed Section 604 language regarding Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) creates a division among Airmen and needs to be removed. Not only would this proposed language strip BAH away from married military-to-military couples, but it would also reduce BAH for single members who elect to live together and pool their resources. BAH is an important part of military compensation and cutting it in this fashion would be akin to a significant pay cut for many military families.
Through the years, Congress has been very supportive of our military. This is no time to stop—we need both adequate funding and the flexibility to keep our country safe, now and into the future.
James is the 23rd secretary of the United States Air Force, serving since 2013.