"Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics."
-- Gen. Robert H. Barrow, USMC (Commandant of the Marine Corps)
You don't spend much time in military circles before General Barrow's axiom becomes cliche. But this is the American way of war: Beat 'em with stuff. Once we had that beachhead on Normandy it was a pretty good bet that we were going to win the war in the European Theater. Aerospace Daily & Defense Report had two stories yesterday that got me thinking about U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM).
During an average week, USTRANSCOM conducts more than 1,900 air missions, with 25 ships underway and 10,000 ground shipments operating in 75 percent of the world's countries.
In the first story (subscription required), U.S. Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz, commander of U.S. Transportation Command, requested more authority for his service to retire aircraft without having to keep them nominally maintained in the boneyard in Arizona in a 'recoverable' status. He needs his maintainers elsewhere. Here's the Google Maps satellite view of the Boneyard. See all those little planes at center and bottom left? Zoom in and scroll around to look more closely.
The second story (subscription required) reports that Schwartz "believes that roughly 300 large airlifters is the right target, along with 400 C-130-class aircraft (pictured), and a tanker fleet in the neighborhood of 400-500 aircraft." Boeing wants TRANSCOM to buy more C-17s, threatening to shutter the line. But Schwartz is worried such a commitment would take funds away from new tanker purchases, which are his top priority.
In fact, the whole airlifter fleet debate has stirred up quite a hornets' nest on Capitol Hill, as proponents for Boeing and Lockheed Martin look to protect -- even boost -- their respective C-17 and C-5 programs. Meanwhile, top Pentagon officials acknowledge their old Mobilities Capabilities Study is essentially overtaken-by-events since President Bush announced his intent to grow the ground forces by 92,000 soldiers and Marines. About the only thing agreed on still is the magic number of 300 cargo aircraft -- any more than that and the private sector might start backing away from the Civil Reserve Airlift Fleet.
It is unfortunate that an industry that rightfully prides itself on serving the country also feeds a fight, often in Congress, that ties Pentagon officials' hands.
Addendum: TRANSCOM even has a PR video on their site. It's a little cheesy, but still interesting.
--Sean Meade
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