Daily Archives: June 15, 2017

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill June 6.

At the forefront were the efforts to restore readiness and increase the lethality of the force. Wilson said any objective evaluation of todays Air Force reaches two conclusions:

The Air Force is too small for the missions demanded of it, she said in advance of the hearing. And adversaries are modernizing and innovating faster than we are, putting Americas technological advantage in air and space at risk.

Looking forward, Wilson and Goldfein do not envision the demand for air and space power diminishing in the coming decade.

Today, the Air Force is manned with 660,000 active, guard, reserve and civilian Airmen, a 30 percent decline since Operation Desert Storm 26 years ago.

We have the same level of taskings today as we did during Desert Storm, Wilson said. But we have 55 squadrons rather than 134.

The Air Force leaders said while the fiscal 18 budget request focuses on restoring readiness and increasing lethality, future budgets must focus on modernization and continued readiness recovery.

The two testified that maintaining superiority starts with people.

For an Airman, its nothing short of a moral obligation to gain and maintain air superiority, Goldfein said. This budget request begins to set the table for recovering and rebuilding our force.

The fiscal 18 budget will bring the active duty force to 325,100 while also adding 800 reservists, 600 guardsman, and 3,000 civilians, bringing the total force to approximately 669,000. The increased manpower will focus primarily on increasing remotely piloted aircraft crews, maintainers, and pilot training capacity by adding two additional F-16 training squadrons and maximizing flying hours to the highest executable levels.

Wilson said next to people, the most obvious readiness need is munitions. In the fight against ISIS, the Air Force has delivered approximately 56,000 direct-attack munitions, more than it used in all of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The fiscal 18 budget funds maximum factory production of the most critical munitions.

The fiscal 18 budget focuses on the Air Forces top three modernization programs:

Purchasing 46 F-35A fighters and modernizing other fighters;

Buying 15 KC-46 tankers;

Funding the B-21 bomber development.

The proposed budget also supports the continuation and modernization of the nuclear triad with funds dedicated to both air- and ground-based capabilities.

Our nuclear enterprise is getting old and we must begin modernizing now to ensure a credible deterrent, Wilson said.

Side-by-side with the United States Navy, we are responsible for two of the three legs of the nuclear Triad, Goldfein said. On our worst day as a nation, our responsibility is to ensure the president is where he needs to be, when he needs to be there, and he stays connected through command and control to the nuclear enterprise and for an Airman, that remains jobs one.

The Air Force has been the leading military service responsible for space for 54 years. Over the last several years, the service has been developing concepts for space control, changing the way it trains its space force and integrating space operations into the joint fight.

Weve provided GPS for the world. Weve transformed not only the way we fight but the way all of you probably navigate around the city, Wilson said. We must expect that war, of any kind, will extend into space in any future conflict and we have to change the way we think and prepare for that eventuality.

The proposed budget increases space funding by 20 percent, including a 27 percent increase in research, development, testing and evaluation for space systems, and a 12 percent increase for space procurement.

Innovation for the future

Research, development, testing and evaluation are critically important for the Air Force, Wilson and Goldfein said.

To prevail against rapidly innovating adversaries, the Air Force must accelerate procurement. The service will take advantage of authorities like the FY17 Defense Authorization Act to help get capabilities operational faster than ever before, Wilson said.

The request for funding for long-term research in air dominance increased significantly in the fiscal 18 budget. The Air Force will seek to increase basic and applied research in areas where it must maintain the competitive advantage over adversaries. This includes hypersonic vehicles, directed-energy, unmanned and autonomous systems, and nanotechnology.

Its going to take us approximately eight years to be able to get to full spectrum readiness with stable budgets, Goldfein said. We will be unable to execute the defense strategic guidance under sequester.

If the Budget Control Act limit isnt fixed and we have to go through sequester, that will be equivalent to a $15 billion cut, Wilson said. Were too small for what the nation expects of us now, sequestration would make the situation worse.

According to Wilson and Goldfein, by supporting the budget request, Congress can provide fiscal predictability to the Air Force so it can continue to own the high ground, defend the homeland, and project power in conjunction with allies.

Originally posted here:

Air Force leaders discuss the future of Air and Space power - Santa Maria Times (subscription)

ByNEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government is definitely on the right track with its promised Fiscal Responsibility legislation, a governance reform group said, while warning: The devil is in the details.

Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governances (ORG) executive director, told Tribune Business that buy in from both the private sector and civil society was critical if a well-crafted Fiscal Responsibility Act is to work.

Emphasising that such legislation needed to be combined ina one-two punch with a Freedom of Information Act, Mr Aubry said the two reforms would improve economic development and decision-making, while also boosting consumer confidence and trust in government.

We feel this is definitely on the right track, and that theyre on the right lines, he told Tribune Business of the broad Fiscal Responsibility Act objectives outlined by KP Turnquest, minister of finance.

Were cautiously optimistic, but the devils in the detail and we need to see how this goes forward. Those were the critical words regarding a Fiscal Responsibility Act, but the particulars are very important. The nuances that make that happen are going to be important.

Mr Turnquest last week told the House of Assembly that the Fiscal Responsibility legislation proposed by the Minnis administration would target an annual GFS balanced Budget, meaning that the goal is to add no new debt to the existing $7-billion plus national debt.

The Governments other objective would be to maintain a desirable and sustainable debt-to-GDP ratio, Mr Turnquest said. To underpin this, the proposed law would require the Government to set out the assumptions underpinning its annual Budget, along with its longer-term fiscal targets.

Explanations would also have to be provided if Budget targets for prior years were missed, while short-term fiscal targets will have to be placed in the context of the Bahamas long-term objectives.

Mr Turnquest suggested that targets could also be set for some components of the Governments fixed-cost spending, such as the civil service wage bill, while plans and timelines for eliminating any deficits will also have to be laid out.

He also suggested that the Budget process could be opened to public consultation, in a bid to obtain a national consensus around the Governments fiscal targets, while Ministries and Departments eyeingnew initiatives maybe required to find the funding from their original allocations.

Mr Aubry told Tribune Business that Mr Turnquests comments sound like the basis of being fiscally responsible to me, and gave particular backing to the notion that non-budgeted government spending be justified through a cost/benefit analysis.

Were going to stress the importance of the private sector, he added, not just in holding the Governments feet to the fire, but in helping to craft strong and positive legislation.

Getting buy-in from the public is essential to help make this live. You can have great legislation, but if you dont have enforcement then the intent of great legislation doesnt happen.

Mr Aubry said the crux of Fiscal Responsibility legislation lay in the details, and he expressed concern that many recent laws gave latitude to the responsible Minister to override certain statutory provisions.

He added that having an open, accessible and structured process for the crafting of a Fiscal Responsibility Act was vital to obtaining public support, which was why ORG had itself recently issued recommendations forimproving consultation.

Public consultation is the critical part, as it creates a platform for the open sharing of data, Mr Aubry told Tribune Business. Making information publicly available is essential to open, modern governance. It facilitates better economic development.

He explained that by allowing the Bahamian public to play an active role in stemming government spending, they would be more understanding if social programmes had to be delayed or cancelled, and not respond in the reactionary manner many politicians fear.

If people have been part of that process, you will get their buy-in, acceptance and understanding, Mr Aubry reiterated, and if you can show a long-term plan, when it comes to times that will be more painful, people have a sense of when that will be alleviated.

That allows more consumer confidence, and greater trust in the Government and the democratic approach.

ORG has been among the numerous groupscampaigning for Fiscal Responsibility-type legislation, viewing it as a key tool in restraining government spending and forcing it to be more accountable and transparent over how it uses taxpayer monies.

The Government is currently seeking Parliamentary approval to borrow $722 million, which will be used to cover the estimated $500 million deficit for 2016-2017, and the $323 million forecast for 2017-2018.

With the Bahamas debt-to-GDP ratio now around 80 per cent when contingent liabilities are factored in, and the national debt climbing beyond $7 billion, the need for a Fiscal Responsibility Act has arguably never been greater.

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'Devil Is In Details' On Fiscal Responsibility - Bahamas Tribune