By Jim Saxton

Washington Times
November 5, 2007

When there is a conflict in some far-off place and the decision is made for the United States to intervene militarily, it is vital that our troops and their supplies and equipment get there fast. For this, a modern airlift fleet is essential. But some in Congress do not understand this and have created "artificial barriers" to providing the airlift necessary to accomplish efficient, rapid, and safe deployments.

The Pentagon's strategic airlift strategy, we have been told, will require "300 capable strategic aircraft" to ferry our military personnel and their equipment to various future theaters of conflict.

Today, there are two possibilities as far as those airlifters are concerned: the C-17, the most modern and by far the most capable; and the C-5, an aircraft first built in the 1960s. Assuming 300 airlifters will do the trick — which some doubt — let's examine the possibilities.

Air Force Secretary Mike Wynne recently testified at a House Armed Services Committee hearing that the current plan is a result of congressional pressure and a statute passed by Congress that prohibits retirement of the old, less capable, C-5 aircraft. Therefore, working within Congress' parameters, if 111 of the 300 required airlifters are C-5s (the entire old fleet), the Defense Department can only buy 189 C-17s, after which the assembly line would be closed.

We would be in great shape if all of these platforms were "capable strategic aircraft." But they are not. In reality, half of the C-5 fleet can't fly safely. That forces the versatile C-17 to be flown much more than ever anticipated, hence wearing them out more quickly. And remember, Congress passed a law stipulating none of these 40-year-old, incapable C-5 aircraft can be retired.

There is an ongoing program to modernize old C-5s. As originally planned, the program was estimated to cost between $5 billion and $8 billion. After a lengthy study, however, the Air Force concluded that the cost could be as high as (are you sitting down?) a whopping $17.8 billion. After hearing this, the contractor cried foul, claiming the cost would "only" be in the neighborhood of $12 billion.

Mr. Wynne, who has no enthusiasm for modernizing all the older airplanes in the C-5 fleet, told Congress the entire modernization program (111 C-5s) would give us the "equivalent of 10 additional airlifters." That's a huge price to pay for such a small increase in capability. While Mr. Wynne believes 30 C-5As, the least capable in this old fleet, should be retired, Congress has blocked that option.

The useful life of the modernized C-5 airframes has been projected as 25 years. However, experts believe that time frame is little more than wishful thinking. After a decade of use, the fleet is expected to become extremely costly to maintain.

In addition to exacerbating the Air Force's budgetary problem, this plan jeopardizes the deployability and readiness of the rest of the Armed Forces. It will cause us to search for other airlift alternatives in the future, when there may not be any alternatives readily available. Already, we are forced to use Soviet-built Russian aircraft to transport mine-resistant "MRAP" vehicles to the Iraqi theater to protect soldiers from improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

So there you have it. Congress has force-fed the Pentagon a plan that costs the American taxpayer untold billions of dollars and leaves us with an inferior strategic airlift fleet, while closing down a production line that has turned out the best airlifter in the history of aviation.

There is a solution. Congress can include language in the fiscal 2008 Defense Authorization bill that will enable the Air Force secretary to retire the oldest and least capable C-5s. In doing so, we will enable the Air Force to plan for future airlift needs in a way that focuses on the best planes for our military — and not on congressional restrictions.

Jim Saxton, New Jersey Republican, is ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives' House Armed Services Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. His district includes Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base, a tanker and airlifter base designated as the Air Mobility Center of the East Coast. McGuire is home to C-17 airlifters, KC-10s and KC-135 tankers.