For Immediate Release: October 24, 2007 Contact: Josh Holly; 202.226.3988
Saxton Opening Statement for Air Force Strategic Initiatives Hearing
Washington D.C. – U.S. House Armed Services Committee Member Jim Saxton (R-NJ) today released the following opening statement for the full committee’s hearing regarding the Air Force’s strategic initiatives:
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this very important hearing on the strategic initiatives, and quite frankly, strategic challenges of the Air Force. I’m very pleased to be here because I believe the issues we are addressing are absolutely critical to the nation’s ability to meet the national security strategy. The issues we talk about today will focus discussions and shape decisions as we continue to conference with the Senate on the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill.
“General Casey and Secretary Geren recently testified to this same Committee that the Army was out of balance. I am absolutely convinced that it's not just the Army - it's the Department of Defense. And, the Air Force's aging aircraft fleet is a clear indicator that the air force is out of balance as well. Requirements for modernization in the air force are enormous, far outrunning the dollars available to meet the task. And, in some cases we have legislated hurdles which are impossible or at least nearly impossible to overcome. There can be no more concrete example of this than our strategic airlift fleet, and I want to say why.
“The Air Force inventory currently consists of 169 C-17s and 111 C-5s. While the C-17 fleet is performing well-beyond everyone's expectations, the C-5 fleet continues to demonstrate consistently low reliability and low mission capability rates. This, in itself, directly impacts the cost of doing business. Today, it is costing Air Mobility Command $11,626 per hour to fly a C-5A/B and $5,960 per hour to fly a C-17. That cost difference, the low reliability rate of the C-5, and its large size and runway length requirements, drive the Air Force to use the C-17 for more than 80 percent of all airlift missions worldwide, and 90 percent in theater.
“Faced with this reality, the Air Force set about a program to improve performance and reduce operations costs for the C-5. The core of this effort is the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engineering Program (R-E-R-P). While the program is still in its infancy, we were recently notified that it suffered a Nunn-McCurdy breach due to substantial cost growth. In fact, the latest Air Force cost projections of $17.8 billion in program cost are more than 50 percent higher than was originally forecast.
“If you recall, the FY04 National Defense Authorization Act prohibited retirement of any C-5 aircraft.
“So, today we have an aging fleet of aircraft, with low reliability rates and high costs to operate. We have modernization programs that turn out to be more complex, more costly, and less productive than we had anticipated. And finally, we have those that would prohibit the Air Force from doing anything about it by legislating that they must keep all these old airplanes.
“In the case of strategic airlift we are jeopardizing the deployability and readiness of the remainder of our Armed Forces. We are over-flying the assets that we do have ( the C-17 fleet) to compensate for the short-comings of the aged C-5 fleet we are trying to sustain and we are pushing an enormous bow-wave of procurement requirements to generations to come.
“During our question and answer period, I will inquire with you about how to fix our airlift recapitalization plan. I supported the original plan to modernize part of the C-5 fleet. But those who believed that it would be wise to modernize the entire fleet rather than just the newer B models, which were the birds to be modernized in the original plan, must now realize that the degree of inefficiency and the high cost make modernizing all 111 C-5’s, make it a most unwise option.
“General Moseley, Secretary Wynne --- the Air Force is facing some extraordinary challenges. I thank you for being with us today and I look forward to hearing your perspectives on these challenges.”
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