CSAF briefs Senate on service's outlook for 2004
by Master Sgt. Scott Elliott
Air Force Print News
02/25/03 - WASHINGTON -- Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper joined the other service chiefs Feb. 25 to give the Senate Armed Services Committee his view of how fiscal 2004 is shaping up.
Jumper testified on areas ranging from manpower shortages and concerns about aging aircraft to the promises of future aircraft currently in development.
The general addressed the increased operations tempo under which the Air Force worked throughout 2002 and into 2003. According to Jumper, more than 25,000 airmen have deployed during operations Enduring Freedom, and Northern and Southern Watch, launching nearly 80,000 sorties. In addition, more than 25,000 sorties have covered American skies as part of Operation Noble Eagle. And, airmen also participated in several humanitarian missions worldwide.
"Our (operations) tempo has been high and our people have been sprinting for a long time, but they never failed to answer the call," Jumper said.
One of the ways the Air Force has worked to relieve the stress in deployment schedules is to make more people available for deployment. A secretary-of-defense mandate called for the services to examine the jobs done by military members to see if civilian employees could do them.
"If you take those tasks that do not need to be done by people in uniform and slip those people back over to uniformed slots, we can relieve the tension on our deployed forces," Jumper said. "In the Air Force alone, we found 12,000 people doing what we think didn't have to be done by people in uniform.
"So it's not just a matter of adding end-strength. It's a matter of making efficiencies of what you (have)," he said.
Another point of institutional stress facing the service is the cost of maintaining an increasingly geriatric aircraft fleet, Jumper said.
"Our average aircraft is 23 years old -- the oldest we've ever had to deal with," Jumper said. "We're facing corrosion and fatigue problems we've never seen before."
The cost of maintaining the aging fleet is increasing at a rate of about 10 percent per year, Jumper said. In addition, maintainers are working about 200,000 extra man-hours per year to inspect engines.
On the plus side, the general praised the potential of the F/A-22 Raptor and the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft.
"The F/A-22 will give us 24-hour stealth capability for the first time," he said. "It's already got the qualities of the best air-to-air fighter in the world, but its main focus will be on what it can do air-to-ground.
"The Joint STARS is magnificent sensing device that we join with ground forces to give them moving target indications on the ground," he said.
According to Jumper, the service is planning to upgrade the next generation of JSTARS to the Boeing 767.
"This will be the baseline aircraft for our multi-sensor command and control aircraft that will do the integration of space, manned and unmanned platforms that we think will take us into the future," he said.
Those additions to the fleet, along with a "total force" cadre of active duty, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard and civilian men and women who are the "best in the world," makes today's Air Force more ready than ever to answer the call.
"The Air Force has never not been ready," Jumper said. "We're ready for anything the president asks."
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