The Air Force Purge
By John Noonan
A word on today's purging of USAF leadership. Official line is that Air Force brass let the nuclear mission slip in the years since the Berlin wall fell. That's true, for a variety of reasons. Standing down Strategic Air Command, the post-Vietnam leadership handoff from nuclear bomber pilots to fighter pilots, the odd square peg that is the kinetic-effects-based Air Force in the round hole of the low-intensity war on terrorism, and the end of the Cold War... all contributed to an overall deemphasis on strategic operations.
Still, this is a really old school way of doing business. Back during the Strategic Air Command days, a Wing Commander who lost custody of one of his bombs--even for a second-- would be immediately relieved. Secretary Robert Gates is an old SAC hat--he was an intelligence officer assigned to a strategic missile wing--so I can't say I'm surprised that he dealt with the Minot AFB and ICBM fuze screwups with Strategic Air Command's tell-tale iron fist.
All that said, the USAF has a ways to go. Looking back on its history, dismantling SAC ranks up there in the service's all time worst decisions. Air Force Space Command isn't a good fit for our 500 ICBMs and the fighter orientated Air Combat Command isn't a good fit for nuclear bombers. Effective reorganization that cuts through the miles of red tape and re-simplifies the strategic mission is what the nuclear world really needs.
Now the unofficial line. There's been a series of incidents over the past few years that have isolated Air Force leadership from the rest of the Pentagon. The overly simplified version is that the other three services went out to fight this new war while the Air Force sat at home and demanded hyper-expensive weapon systems. They tried to grab at the Army's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) force, were reluctant to deploy increased numbers of UAVs into theater, crawled from acquisitions disaster to acquisitions disaster, and capped it all off with the twin nuclear fiascos.
Again, that's over-simplified. But it is the popular perception in the Pentagon. And Gates seems to have had enough. These firings look like a warning shot to the entire service: either get with the program, or I'll find someone who will.
For years, there's been a rivalry between fighter pilots and bomber pilots for command of the Air Force. Ever since the B-52 community took horrendous losses during Linebacker I & II, the fighter pilots have ruled. I'll be most curious to see if the new Chief is a bomber guy and if the reign of the fighter pilot has come to an end. |
