AF chief: $10B in cuts loom

Top civilian leader warns of new round of sequestration.


EXCLUSIVE

The Dayton Daily News was the only local media outlet granted an exclusive interview with Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James during her visit to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We will continue to bring readers in-depth coverage of military issues, such as defense spending and force drawdowns.

The return of sequestration would impact “every part” of the Air Force while the service branch has called for an end to downsizing the number of airmen in ranks and pushes to restore readiness and modernize an aging fleet, the service branch’s top civilian leader said.

In an exclusive interview Thursday with the Dayton Daily News, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said sequester-imposed spending caps may cut $10 billion from the budget the Air Force wants.

The secretary toured Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and addressed more than 200 Air Force Institute of Technology graduates and more than 1,000 others gathered at a ceremony Thursday night at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

“Ten billion is a big chunk of money and it would mean every part of our Air Force would be touched in some way,” she said in an interview. “It’s impossible to predict what that means for Wright-Patterson,” but it could strike programs like advanced engine research and raise the potential for a return of furloughs, she said.

In 2013, thousands of civil service workers were sent home for days at Wright-Patterson because of furloughs officials blamed on sequestration. Without action from Washington, the automatic cuts are due to return in October, the start of the 2016 fiscal year.

“I certainly will be a strong vote that (furloughs) will not remain on the table, but of course this is now in the hands of Congress,” she said. “We’re working with Congress actively to try and get our point across. But I think those furloughs were very devastating, disturbing, really had a bad impact on morale of our civilian workforce and I think we should not return to that.”

In her speech to AFIT graduates, James said they will confront the challenge of fiscal austerity and defense cuts, new global adversaries like the Islamic State, a resurgent Russia in Ukraine, a rising China in the Asia-Pacific region and uncertainty in the geopolitical world.

“Confronting and overcoming challenges is our collective responsibility,” she said.

In an interview with this newspaper, James called for an end to the downsizing of the number of airmen in the Air Force, now the smallest since its inception in 1947 at around 310,000 active-duty uniform personnel. The service branch has proposed a “slight increase” in the number of active-duty, Reserve and Air National Guard airmen.

“Number one with me is taking care of people and with respect to taking care of people in the 15 months I have been on the job I have become convinced that we have downsized the Air Force as much as we should,” she said. “We should go no lower and enough is enough when it comes to downsizing.”

The Air Force has prioritized modernizing aircraft and nuclear forces, investing in cyber and space operations, science and technology development, and training and readiness, while it emphasizes “making every dollar count,”she said.

Headquarters spending cuts

On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released a March 24 letter addressed to James that criticized the Air Force for not meeting a Defense Department directive that called on each service branch to reduce spending at headquarters by 20 percent and to strive for a goal of a 20 percent reduction in government civilian staff.

The Arizona Republican senator said the Air Force had “pursued a shell game” that moved money to fund the same positions relocated elsewhere in the Air Force, such as re-designating the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency the 25th Air Force and setting up a new Installation and Mission Support Center. He urged the service branch to reduce headquarters civilian staffs.

James said Thursday the Air Force had achieved in one year rather than the five allowed in the directive a 20 percent spending reduction at headquarters. “And the key word there is spending because of course, with our debt, our deficit, what we’re all trying to do is become more efficient and save money,” she said. “The way we did that was a combination of things.”

Those measures impacted both civilian employees and contractors and reassigned some military personnel from administrative tasks to other military missions, she said.

“There were a series of actions that we took in order to achieve these savings,” she said. “So what we’re going to do is offer some additional briefings to try to clarify this on Capitol Hill.”

The secretary backed a new round of Base Realignment and Closure to shed excess infrastructure. One Air Force official recently said in testimony to Congress the Air Force had 30 percent more infrastructure than it needed.

“We do have excess capacity and the fact that we are paying money to maintain that capacity means that money can’t be spent on people, and readiness and modernization so we would prefer to free up those dollars and put them toward more important uses,” James said.

The Air Force will rely more on the Reserve and Air National Guard in the future. It has sent more F-15C Eagle fighters to the Air National Guard, more cyber operations in the Reserve and moved additional space-oriented missions to both sister branches, she said.

“We’re big believers, we’re total force people, so I think you’re going to see more of that in the future,” she said.

James said the unrelenting demand for drone operations has strained the ranks of unmanned aerial vehicle pilots.

“Those particular pilots are under a great deal of strain and because the requirements for that capability is going up, up, up we know sooner catch up with the requirement when the requirement goes up again,” she said. “…At the moment, we are meeting all the requirements, but our people are very tired.”

F-35 ready for take-off?

James acknowledged the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has had “ups and downs” in its long development history, but defended the need for the fifth-generation fighter. It costs more than original estimates and has struggled to meet production deadlines.

“I’ll say at the outset that it is a leap ahead of anything that we’ve ever had before,” she said. “It’s a capability that we very much need for our Air Force, but it’s had a difficult history.”

Even so, she said, the aircraft has trended toward lower costs and noted international partners in the program have driven down costs while increasing quantities. She said despite setbacks with computer software, the Air Force is on track to field the aircraft in late 2016.

The Air Force expects to select a builder for the next generation bomber this spring or summer. The research and development costs of the Long Range Strike Bomber will likely be a cost-plus incentive contract, meaning if the winning contractor doesn’t meet milestones, profit will “erode, erode, erode,” she said.

A procurement contract would be a “firm-fixed price” per unit, she said. The Air Force has targeted a $550 million per aircraft price tag, but critics have doubted the figure will hold.

James, and Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force’s top general, have rolled out several initiatives to recruit and retain more women and minorities. They range from drawing more enlisted airmen into the officer corps to allowing airmen to take a three-year break in service.

Women in particular tend to leave the Air Force at twice the levels of men at mid-career, she said.

“I’m not satisfied with respect to where we are in our Air Force with respect to diversity,” she said. “I’m one who thinks there’s been a lot of progress made, but we can do better.”

On the issue of sexual assault, James said the increase in reports in recent years demonstrated airmen were more comfortable in reporting the crime. At the same time, she said although reports — which may document incidents that occurred in previous years — have climbed, the number of annual incidents has dropped year to year most recently. Exact incident annual numbers were not immediately available Thursday, but reports of sexual assaults rose from 648 in fiscal 2011 to to 1,328 in the last fiscal year, figures show.

Airmen will receive training to prevent retaliation directed at victims who report assaults, James said. About two thirds of airmen who report being victimized say they experience signs of retaliation from peers, she said.

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