The Afghanistan Option

The Afghanistan Option: The Air Force is already at workpreparing for the expanding US mission in Afghanstan, said US Central Command air boss Lt. Gen. Gary North in a Thursday night meeting with reporters at AFA's Air Warfare Symposium. The Air Force is already "growing" some of the in-country aerial port facilities and has been pouring a lot of concrete to expand ramp space and aircraft parking areas at the Bagram and Kandahar air fields in Afghanistan. This is being done in anticipation of the 17,000-man expansion of the US military force this year. North said other preparations for the force expansion will include movement of Air Force engineers from Iraq to Afghanistan, construction of helicopter landing zones, and general USAF assistance in building the support and bed-down infrastructure needed to support the larger force.

2/27/2009

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No Dog, Just Concern
"You know it concerns me that we keep hearing, 'Well this is something that the military doesn't want. They didn't ask for,' and all that. Then I go over there [Southwest Asia theater], and that's not their attitude at all. They have needs over there. Our lift capacity is in dire straights. … Now on the F-22—just yesterday we read about the T-50 … a fifth generation [fighter] that the Russians have. … I'm concerned about this. And I guess, you know, if we're down to 187 F-22s, and I think out of that only—what 120 are actually combat ready and used for combat. … I look at our committee—the Senate Armed Services Committee—and on these two vehicles I mentioned—the F-22 and the C-17—in Oklahoma. I don't have a dog in that fight. We don't have any parochial interest there. But it's the capability that we're going to need."
—Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), speaking during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Fiscal 2011 defense budget, Feb. 2, 2010.

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Taming Expectations
"Every QDR disappoints those who look for radical reallocation of resources. The current fiscal environment is compounding that trend."
—Jim Thomas, vice president for studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, briefing reporters in Washington, D.C., Jan. 26, 2010.