June 2000 Vol. 83, No. 6
By Peter Grier,
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Human Error Cited in Kuwait C-130 Crash
Pilot error was the cause of the Dec. 10 crash of a C-130E
transport in Kuwait, according to a newly released accident report.
The aircraft, part of USAF's 9th Expeditionary Airlift Group,
crashed at Ahmed Al Jaber AB in the Persian Gulf nation. The
nighttime accident killed three airmen and injured seven others.
According to the report, the C-130 crew members failed "to
follow governing directives" and exhibited "complacency
in flight operations" during the airplane's approach to
the Ahmed Al Jaber runway. Thus "they failed to monitor
their instruments, which is critical during night flying with
reduced visibility."
The report states, "The pilot never recognized his landing
picture, with reference to the runway, and failed to transition
to a normal visual glide path for landing." Morever, the
approach was "conducted below weather minimums and in violation
of landing restrictions on [the chosen runway]." Additionally,
the crew failed to contact the tower for confirmation of runway
visibility after being warned by the weather office about fog
in the area.
At about 125 feet above ground level, the C-130 entered a
fog bank, and the pilot and copilot lost sight of the runway.
None of the flight crew had recognized the need to correct the
aircraft's unusually steep rate of descent. The airplane hit
the ground 2,890 feet short of the runway. The crew managed to
get the aircraft back into the air, flying about five feet above
ground when it then struck the antenna of an instrument landing
system.
The initial impact destroyed the airplane's main landing gear
and forced the crew to make a no-gear landing at Kuwait City
IAP.
Basic Training Death Prompts Charges
The Air Force on April 14 said it will charge a Noncommissioned
Officer with dereliction of duty in connection with the heatstroke
death of a recruit at Lackland AFB, Texas, last September.
Two officers and three other NCOs will be reprimanded for
their part in the tragedy, said officials.
Trainee Micah J. Schindler died two days after collapsing
of heatstroke during a training march in midday Texas heat. His
heatstroke was complicated by overhydration, or drinking too
much water, said officials.
The officials claimed that the NCO charged with dereliction
failed to see the seriousness of Schindler's condition after
he vomited during a meal break, less than an hour before he collapsed.
Maximum punishment for the charge under Article 15 of the
Uniform Code of Military Justice includes reduction in rank,
30 days in correctional custody, and half pay for two months.
The NCO may request a trial by military court instead of accepting
the punishment.
The Air Force declined to release the names of those charged.
According to news reports, Schindler's family regretted the
service's decision to not file criminal charges against anyone
involved in the incident.
CNN Settles Tailwind Defamation
Lawsuit
Cable News Network settled a defamation lawsuit brought by
retired Army Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub as a result of the network's
misbegotten 1998 "Tailwind" broadcast, according to
the Associated Press.
The network identified Singlaub as a source of the Tailwind
story, which charged that the US military used prohibited nerve
gas in attacks on US defectors and others during the Vietnam
War.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
CNN was forced to retract the nerve gas charge one month after
the airing of the Tailwind segment. The story had elicited a
firestorm of negative reaction from former members of the US
military, who charged the basic story was a fabrication. CNN
officials, revisiting the issue, found they could not verify
the story's accuracy.
Two producers were fired, and a third quit. The lead named
reporter on Tailwind, Peter Arnett, kept his job only by arguing
that he did little on the story and simply repeated assertions
handed to him in a script. However, he was placed in limbo, appearing
on air only once before CNN used an exit clause in his contract
with two years still remaining of the five-year pact.
Panel Says Two-War Strategy
Is Outdated
The Pentagon needs to ditch its "two Major Theater War"
strategy for sizing military forces and try something different,
concludes a report released April 19 by the US Commission on
National Security/21st Century.
Better known as the HartRudman Commission, the panel
is chaired by former Sens. Gary Hart (DColo.) and Warren
Rudman (R-N.H.). It was established in 1998 to recommend new
national security strategies.
The panel's report-its second in a series of three-offered
little of note other than its two-war recommendation.
In the 1990s, DoD has sought to structure and train its forces
to be able to fight and win two MTWs at more or less the same
time. The military has claimed it needs such forces to deter
potential aggression against US interests in a second area should
the US military already be engaged in major combat elsewhere.
This strategy, claimed the panel, prevents the United States
from fielding all of the kinds of forces it needs to be able
to address existing and emerging threats.
"This commission believes that the 'two Major Theater
Wars' yardstick for sizing US forces is not producing the capabilities
needed for the varied and complex contingencies now occurring
and likely to increase in the years ahead," said the report.
More specifically, the panel claims the present method of
sizing forces will no longer be viable in the coming decades,
as an increasing number of interventions overseas, such as those
required to promote regional stability, call for standing up
forces "different from those designed for Major Theater
War."
Consequently, the United States must "adapt portions
of its force structure to meet these needs."
To conduct such interventions-which will become more difficult
with the continued proliferation of defense-related technologies
to potential adversaries-the United States needs "rapidly
employable" expeditionary capabilities and humanitarian
relief and constabulary capabilities.
The report also specifies three other capabilities needed
for the early 21st century-nuclear forces to protect the United
States and allies; conventional forces to win major wars; and
homeland security capabilities, which may include a National
Missile Defense.
The Phase 2 report, though it trashes the Pentagon's existing
force-sizing mechanism, stops short of recommending an alternative
that would be more in line with the capabilities it advocates.
The outcome is surprising since devising an alternative was the
subject of considerable debate among panel members as they worked
to finalize the Phase 2 report.
Some members called for scrapping the two MTW strategy by
taking resources presently devoted to fighting one potential
major war and using them to constitute rapidly employable expeditionary
forces and constabulary forces. Other members wanted the commission
to focus on adding resources to the defense budget to achieve
those goals.
In the end, commissioners agreed that given today's demands
on the military, and those anticipated over the next 25 years,
"it is evident that modern forces equal to these demands
cannot be sustained by current levels of spending."
When the Phase 2 study was unveiled at the National Press
Club in Washington, Rudman said the commission plans, in the
next report, to address how to adapt the Pentagon's existing
force structure to meet existing and emerging threats. "These
kinds of specific recommendations are not properly placed in
a document that mainly deals with strategy," he said. It
is due early next year, just as the Pentagon embarks on a new
Quadrennial Defense Review and a new Presidential Administration
takes office.
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Army Lieutenant General Charges
Sex Harassment
In a move that is roiling the top ranks of the Army, the service's
highest-ranking woman charges that in 1996 she was sexually harassed
by a general officer colleague.
Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy, head of Army intelligence, alleges
that a fellow general--identified in news reports as Maj. Gen.
Larry G. Smith--made sexual advances during a meeting in her
Pentagon office.
Kennedy never reported the alleged incident at the time; rather,
she dealt with it directly. However, when Smith was tapped for
a promotion to become deputy inspector general of the Army, she
felt it was imperative to advise the Army, since he would supervise
investigations of sexual harassment claims.
Swirls of charges and countercharges-including various charges
by anonymous officers against Kennedy-regarding the principals
have been covered in news reports. The Army and Pentagon refuse
to officially confirm Smith is under investigation. Neither general
has spoken publicly about the issue.
A May 11 Washington Post report states that Army investigators
have substantiated Kennedy's charge. Although Kennedy did not
report the incident in 1996, she apparently had confided in several
friends.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon would still not comment,
saying that the news reports have "made clear that whatever
process there is [is] still under way."
Smith has denied making an improper advance, according to
reports. An article in The Washington Times May 12 stated that
military sources say Smith is thinking of asking DoD to reinvestigate
the case.
The Army has faced several high-profile sexual harassment
cases in the past few years. One involved an Army general officer
who had also been tapped for the deputy inspector general position.
He retired as an investigation was launched into charges that
he had had sex with the wives of subordinates and lied to Army
investigators about it. After the charges became public, Maj.
Gen. David R. Hale was recalled from retirement to face a court-martial.
He was fined and reduced in rank.
The current case represents the first known charge of general
vs. general sexual harassment.
USAF Should Revamp Launch Range
Safety, Study Says
The Air Force should get ready for a surge in space launch
activity in coming years by streamlining and updating safety
management practices at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., and Vandenberg
AFB, Calif., according to a new report from the National Academy
of Sciences.
The 55-page report, titled "Streamlining Space Launch
Range Safety," was prepared by the National Research Council
under commission by Air Force Space Command.
Among other items, the report concluded that the Air Force
should proceed with plans to replace outdated tracking radars
with satellite-based tracking systems.
"Launch range operators can maintain today's high level
of safety while reducing costs by using satellite technology,
for example, which is more efficient than a conventional radar
system and can track rockets just as accurately," said Robert
E. Whitehead, committee chair and a retired NASA administrator.
The report also urged the service to shift launch-tracking
functions for the Africa "gate" at Antigua and Ascension
islands in the Atlantic Ocean to sites closer to the US. That
would allow range safety officers to destroy rockets earlier
if there is any chance they will fall to Earth during a brief
pass over Africa on their way toward orbit.
However, the report noted that the chance of such an accident
ever occurring is small, as rockets that pass over the gate are
on the verge of entering space, and that more modern technologies
can in any case do the same job from elsewhere.
The NRC also said that the military should redouble its efforts
to keep boats and airplanes out of restricted zones prior to
launch-especially near Cape Canaveral.
The Air Force should make greater use of news media to alert
the public, said the report.
Another aspect of the report stated that despite organizational
changes within the Air Force some overlaps continue. In 1997,
Air Force Space Command transferred oversight for acquisition-like
functions related to range safety to Air Force Materiel Command.
The report noted that "the complete transfer ... would,
if properly implemented, increase efficiency and reduce costs
without compromising safety."
F-22 Faces Another Congressional
Test
For the F-22, this year's ride through Congress may well turn
out to be a white-knuckle affair, as it was last year.
Several factors-including the recently concluded strike at
subcontractor Boeing-could keep the Air Force from meeting the
program's Congressionally mandated testing requirements for 2000.
A key legislator-Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), head of the
defense appropriations subcommittee-says he will try to block
funding for the airplane if it does not meet the designated test
schedule. Lewis mounted a serious stop-the-F-22 effort in 1999,
catching many of the fighter's supporters by surprise.
While he praises the airplane's cutting-edge technology, Lewis
continues to question the need for the aircraft, saying in a
statement that it is "difficult" to "convince
ourselves" that future foes will be so "extraordinarily
formidable" that their defeat would require the F-22.
This year the Air Force is requesting $4 billion to continue
development and to buy 10 production aircraft.
The biggest technical problem now facing the Air Force and
F-22 prime contractor Lockheed Martin deals with the aircraft's
Block 3 integrated avionics software package.
The F-22's avionics are intended to be a major reason why
the fighter should dominate skies well into the 21st century.
The system will show pilots an environment that identifies hostile
aircraft and ground threats and allows targeting with a click
of a mouse. In addition, the airplane's electronics are supposed
to be able to fix themselves by recognizing failure in sensors
and other electronic parts and reconfiguring to keep the system
operating.
Boeing is the F-22's major avionics subcontractor-and Boeing
engineers recently went on strike for 40 days.
The Air Force had figured that a 60-day strike would make
it unlikely that Block 3 software would fly in the F-22 by this
December, as Congressional test requirements mandate. The 40-day
strike means that things will be close.
"At this point, it is high risk that we will actually
have Block 3 in an airplane by the end of December," Secretary
of the Air Force F. Whitten Peters told the Senate Appropriations
Committee in March.
Raptor flight testing of Block 3 is one of 10 criteria that
the Air Force must meet for a Low-Rate Initial Production decision
on the F-22 to be made by the end of the year. Service testers
said they will try to overcome the effects of the Boeing strike.
Peters told senators he thinks proceeding with LRIP is still
"appropriate," even if the avionics software is tested
only in the lab and on the 757 flying test bed.
Some 98 percent of avionics software bugs are typically discovered
prior to operational flight testing, said Peters.
Lewis, however, continues to insist that Block 3 must take
to the air in an F-22 airframe before the program can proceed
into production.
Lewis's panel on May 11 approved full $4 billion funding for
the F-22-including production funds for 10 fighters. However,
its bill pointedly restates that no funds may be released unless
the F-22 meets all testing requirements.
Fatigue testing may also be a particular problem area for
the Raptor. The Pentagon's top testing official, Philip E. Coyle
III, says the program may be unable to complete 40 percent of
fatigue testing by the end of the year-another requirement for
the LRIP decision.
The Air Force does not agree that fatigue tests will be a
problem-and continues to vigorously defend the F-22 program.
The facts will out, say Air Force officials, and the facts indicate
that the F-22 should forge ahead.
The decision whether to proceed into production with the Raptor
should be reached as "a result of a vigorous debate where
we stand on our merits, and if our arguments prevail we get it
sooner. If we can't convince them, then we get what we deserve;
we get it later," said Gen. John P. Jumper, commander of
Air Combat Command, in mid-April.
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Missile Defense Costs On Rise?
The Department of Defense estimates that the full cost of
buying and running a National Missile Defense system through
2026 will be $30.2 billion, officials said April 4.
That is more than twice the $12.7 billion often cited by the
Clinton Administration in the past as the life-cycle cost of
the system.
The $12.7 billion figure represents only acquisition costs
incurred from 1999 through 2005, said a Pentagon spokesman, Rear
Adm. Craig R. Quigley. It does not include $7.5 billion previously
spent on the National Missile Defense effort. Nor does it include
substantial acquisition costs that would be incurred after 2005.
Last year, Administration and military officials decided that
NMD plans should reflect the need for 100 ground-based interceptors
purchased by 2007. Previous plans had called for only 20 interceptors,
with procurement ending in 2005.
"The total life-cycle cost of the program from 1991 to
2026 is projected to be $30.2 billion," Quigley said. "I'm
talking maintenance, I'm talking everything."
All of the dollar amounts are expressed in base-year Fiscal
1999 dollars, according to Quigley.
19 Killed in V-22 Osprey
Crash
In one of the worst accidents in the history of Marine Corps
aviation and one of the deadliest military crashes of the decade,
19 people were killed April 8 when a Marine V-22 Osprey tiltrotor
plunged nose-first into a concrete landing pad near Tucson, Ariz.
Marine officials denied reports that there had been a fire
or explosion aboard the airplane before the crash, but they said
that the $44 million aircraft fell so hard it blew the air cushion
out from beneath another Osprey landing nearby, causing that
airplane to drop hard and roll 150 feet.
The airplane's engines were in the helicopter, or vertical,
position when it crashed, said investigators.
The accident marked the second fatal incident in the Osprey's
test history. In 1992, seven people were killed when an engine
fire caused a V-22 to fall into the Potomac River near Quantico,
Va. A year earlier, a V-22 crashed at a Boeing test facility
in Delaware, but no one was killed.
Lt. Gen. Fred McCorkle, head of Marine aviation, said the
disaster should not affect plans to purchase 360 V-22s as a replacement
for aging CH-46 helicopters. The Air Force plans to buy 50 V-22s;
the Navy, 48.
"Analysis of the data retrieved from the crash, ... coupled
with comprehensive engineering investigations to date, have found
no mechanical or software failures," said McCorkle in a
Pentagon briefing May 9.
"The data shows that the mishap aircraft was in a high
rate of descent at a relatively forward low air speed,"
he said. "These characteristics can lead to a condition
known as power settling." Basically, the aircraft would
have lost lift on its rotor system. It's a condition that is
common to all helicopter flight, added McCorkle.
He then emphasized, "We have found no structural or design
flaws that would preclude safe flight operations and maintain
complete faith in the safety of the V-22."
The doomed flight was part of the aircraft's operational evaluation,
in which realistic exercises test notional tactics. The airplane
was full of Marine passengers because the tactics being tested
involved evacuation of a crowded and threatened US embassy.
Meanwhile, one of the Osprey's most enthusiastic Congressional
boosters said the crash might signal trouble for the program.
Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), a former Marine and ranking minority
member of the House Appropriations Committee's defense spending
subpanel, said that the Marines have virtually no other option
than the V-22 to replace their 40-year-old CH-46s.
"We got a big time problem here if there's something
wrong with it," said Murtha in an April 11 interview with
Defense Daily. "We have to see."
Black Hawk helicopters might conceivably replace the V-22
in Marine plans, but UH-60s are slower and carry less than the
Osprey, said Murtha.
The V-22 has had plenty of testing, so that should not be
the problem, said the Pennsylvania Democrat. He added that he
has always been concerned about the airplane's transition mode,
when it changes from forward aircraft flight to helicopter flight.
"That always worried me. There's a brief period when
the wings turn [and] they lose some lift," said Murtha.
The aircraft involved in the accident had flown for more than
135 hours since January, according to Marine records. The V-22
program had accumulated about 2,400 hours since the 1992 fatal
crash.
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Agent Orange Link to Diabetes?
The Air Force on March 29 released study results that have
once again raised questions about whether human exposure to Agent
Orange and its contaminant dioxin is in some way associated with
adult-onset diabetes.
The long-term Air Force effort is called the Ranch Hand Study,
named for the operation in the 1960s in which the Air Force sprayed
defoliant herbicides over Vietnam in an effort to deny the Viet
Cong foliage cover and crops. Since it began in 1982 the study
has focused on whether long-term effects exist in Ranch Hand
air- and ground-crew personnel that can be attributed to the
herbicides.
The results released in March suggest that as dioxin levels
in the body increase, the presence and severity of adult-onset
diabetes increase, and the time it takes to contract the illness
decreases. A 47 percent increase in diabetes was found among
those with the highest measured levels of dioxin.
Officials noted that after 15 years of follow up, the Ranch
Hand Study has found no consistent evidence that dioxin exposure
is related to cancer.
Ranch Hand crew members as a group show a 6 percent greater
risk of cancer than a comparison group of Air Force veterans
involved with C-130 missions in Southeast Asia during the same
period as Operation Ranch Hand. However, differences by occupation
and service within the data suggest that herbicide or dioxin
exposure is not the cause of this increased risk factor.
For example, the subgroup that had the highest exposure to
dioxin-Ranch Hand ground crew members-exhibited a 22 percent
decreased risk of cancer, noted the study.
Next, Ho Chi Minh "Highway"?
Communist Vietnam has broken ground for an ambitious project
to build a 1,000-mile-long highway along stretches of the old
Ho Chi Minh Trail, the network of roads along the nation's spine
used for the transport of troops and supplies to Communist forces
in the south during the Vietnam War.
Hanoi claims that the road project will turn a symbol of conflict
into an engine of economic growth for the nation's poor western
provinces. Outside experts were skeptical, noting that most of
the country's population is along the coast and that the main
coastal northsouth highway is itself not overly congested.
Some said any money spent on the Ho Chi Minh project would
be better used to improve the country's existing road network.
Highways are so bad that foreign firms are reluctant to set up
factories in rural areas. Urban streets are so crowded that daily
commutes are maddeningly long.
Twenty-five years after its military victory, Vietnam is attempting
to turn a number of war relics into economic assets. Some former
US military bases have been converted into special export processing
zones that produce clothes and other consumer goods.
DoD Seeks Base Agreement With
Qatar
The US is negotiating with Qatar for the right to land expeditionary
aircraft forces at the Gulf nation's Al Uedid AB, said defense
officials accompanying Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen
on a swing through the region April 5.
"There's willingness by both parties to reach an agreement,"
said a defense official. "It's just a matter of terms and
conditions."
Among the issues are which nation will pay for new hangars,
prefabricated maintenance buildings, aprons, and other improvements
needed to allow the base to accommodate 30 to 40 fighters, which
would be part of US Central Command forces.
Qatar reportedly wants a visible US presence as a means to
help it defend its offshore North Field, which is the world's
largest natural gas reservoir. It extends into the Gulf near
Iranian waters.
The DoD official emphasized, however, that the negotiations
did not come in response to a specific action by either Iran
or Iraq. Instead, the talks are part and parcel of a US effort
to build an integrated regional coalition.
"Our presence at the base would be one part of that regional
security framework-not focused at one particular country or another,
but part of a system we would like to have in place," said
the official.
Battle of the Pentagon
Bus Station
It's the Washington area's largest bus-to-subway transfer
point-but the Department of Defense says it is just too close
to the Pentagon, reports The Washington Post. For security reasons,
the US military plans to relocate the D.C. Metro system's Pentagon
bus station stop 300 feet to the east of its present building-side
location.>
Metro officials aren't happy that their customers will now
have a five-minute walk to board buses. They want the Pentagon
to fund a $35 million replacement bus plaza, sized to allow addition
of bus lines if ridership grows in the future and to include
a climate-controlled waiting area and restrooms.
The Pentagon says it will only replicate today's rectangular
bus drop-off plaza, which is of 1977 vintage.
The impetus for the move is the increasing realization that
Washington's federal infrastructure is not as hardened against
terrorist attack as it could be. From a security official's point
of view, relocating the Pentagon bus shelter is an obvious move.
The stop handles 95 bus routes and some 34,000 commuter trips
a day. Some 30 percent of passengers who use the bussubway
node are bound for the Pentagon itself. Seventy percent transit
the area and head elsewhere.
"With the volume of people going through there, it's
a very nice area for a target," said Army Maj. Kelly Butler,
a Pentagon official working the issue.
The military also plans to close an escalator that leads from
the Metro subway directly to the Pentagon itself. The escalator
is a "threat delivery tube," said Butler.
Construction of the new plaza is to be finished by 2002, said
officials.
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USAF Taps Texas Site for Bomber
Training
The Lancer Military Operations Area in central Texas plus
Instrument Route 178 in west Texas will be the site for the new
training range called for by Air Combat Command's Realistic Bomber
Training Initiative, Air Force officials announced in late March.
The Lancer option won out over another Texas site, a northern
New Mexico site, and a no-action alternative, which would mean
continuing to use distant ranges.
The RBTI is aimed at improving the realism of training for
B-1 crews from Dyess AFB, Texas, and B-52 crews from Barksdale
AFB, La. The new Texas site should also reduce training transit
time for the crews by 70 percent, according to Air Force estimates.
Currently the crews have to travel as far as Wyoming and South
Dakota to find real-world-type flying space.
Three existing military training areas will be consolidated
into a single 40-by-80 nautical-mile rectangle to create the
Lancer MOA. Some 85 percent of Lancer and IR 178 will come from
existing military airspace.
Two electronic scoring sites will be constructed to support
the RBTI. Sites in Harrison, Ark., and La Junta, Colo., will
close, and affected employees, currently 61 civilians, will be
given the chance to relocate to Texas.
Local opponents of the creation of the Lancer MOA have long
worried that it would increase the number of low-level bomber
flights in the area. Air Force officials insist that the total
number of low-level sorties will not go up. The minimum altitude
in Lancer will be 3,000 feet above the ground.
"I am glad the voices of west Texas have been heard,"
said Rep. Henry Bonilla (RTexas) in a prepared statement.
"The original RBTI proposal by the Air Force called for
an increase of 1,100 low-level bomber training sorties over my
district. The final report will result in no increase in bombers
flying over west Texas."
Pentagon Withholds USAF Report
on Kosovo
A United States Air Forces in Europe study on the lessons
learned from Operation Allied Force is not going to be made public.
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen made the decision to
not release the unclassified "Air War Over Kosovo"
study, which was finished in January and approved for release
by Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters and Chief of Staff Gen.
Michael E. Ryan.
The report, written by Brig. Gen. John Corley, USAFE's director
of studies and analysis, does not reach conclusions that are
significantly different from the Pentagon's own already-released
after-action study, according to sources.
But Cohen does not want any more US military studies of the
fight against Yugoslavia perhaps confusing issues, said officials.
"As far as there being a comprehensive look at Allied Force
in its entirety, ... Secretary Cohen ... felt that it was important
that we should have one voice," said Pentagon spokesman
Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley.
Saudi Arabia Interested in
More F-15s
Saudi Arabian officials discussed the purchase of 24 more
F-15S Eagles with Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen during
his trip to the Gulf region in early April.
The aircraft would be intended as replacements for 80 aging
Saudi F-5s. They would add to the Gulf kingdom's already substantial
F-15 fleet: 91 C and D air superiority fighters and 50 multirole
S versions specially tailored to Saudi requirements.
Discussions regarding the purchase of the Boeingmade
aircraft are still preliminary. Details of how the Saudis would
finance the buy are not yet clear.
Boeing is eager to lock up additional foreign F-15 sales.
The company's St. Louis. production line is scheduled to complete
its final USAF aircraft this summer.
Without new orders, it would have to shut down the line. Members
of the Missouri Congressional delegation, most notably Republican
Sen. Christopher S. Bond, have been avidly promoting further
production of the F-15 for USAF attrition reserve and as a complement
to the forthcoming F-22 fighter.
CNN, NPR Give Boot
to Military Interns
Cable News Network and National Public Radio have given the
boot to interns from US Army Psychological Operations units.
According to news reports, top executives say they were chagrined
to learn that their organizations were accepting help from such
an untraditional source. After the PSYOP presence was made public
in European reports, it was quickly ended.
The military duties of PSYOP units include the production
of TV and radio material for use in advancing US policy abroad
and military goals in particular operations. Military officials
were pleased with the PSYOP internships at CNN and NPR, feeling
that they were getting good professional training in return for
providing some entry-level labor.
CNN accepted five PSYOP interns, beginning in June 1999. NPR
had taken in three interns, who worked for varying periods beginning
in September 1998.
News officials said the internship programs were approved
by human relations personnel, without the knowledge of top executives.
But the Army says the PSYOP personnel did nothing to hide their
professional origin, and their presence must have been known
to news department managers.
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US Will Maintain Current Saudi
Troop Levels
The number of US troops in Saudi Arabia is not going to be
reduced.
That is a message Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen was
eager to convey, following his discussion about regional security
issues in early April with Saudi Defense and Aviation Minister
Prince Sultan.
The subject never came up, despite news reports that indicated
some of the approximately 4,000 US service personnel based at
Prince Sultan AB in the Gulf kingdom might be going home.
"We have no plans to reduce the number of airmen or planes
at Prince Sultan AB, and the topic of reducing airmen in Saudi
Arabia was not discussed ... between Secretary Cohen and Prince
Sultan," said Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon on April
10.
For his part, Prince Sultan insisted that the US troops were
welcome in his nation and operated under a UNagreed framework
to conduct no-fly-zone enforcement over southern Iraq.
"These troops are doing their duties to keep [the] peace
only, not for aggression," said Prince Sultan at a news
conference following the Jeddah talks with his US counterpart.
Other topics that came up between Prince Sultan and Secretary
Cohen included Peninsula Shield. Peninsula Shield forces are
composed of troops from the six members of the Gulf Cooperation
Council-Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United
Arab Emirates-who get together for exercises about once every
two years. Prince Sultan suggested that the US might join in
Peninsula Shield training.
The Saudi defense minister also offered guarded support for
recent US efforts to reach out to Iran in hopes of establishing
better ties.
"All steps taken by the United States toward this goal
are welcome," he said.
Kremlin Ratifies START
II-Finally
After years of delay, Russia's lower house of parliament approved
the START II nuclear arms reduction treaty April 14. The move
handed Russia's newly elected president, Vladimir V. Putin, his
first big legislative victory-and gave him the opportunity to
renew warnings that he will resist any attempt by the United
States to deploy or even develop anti-missile defenses.
After the vote, Putin said that while he wanted a constructive
relationship with the West he also wished to make it clear that
Russia's implementation of START II depends on Washington's continued
adherence to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
If the US unilaterally withdraws from the ABM pact-a move
some lawmakers have called for-Russia will withdraw not only
from the START II treaty, but from the whole system of treaties
on the limitation and control of strategic and conventional weapons,
Putin said in an appearance before Parliament.
The START II treaty was originally signed seven years ago
by President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
The US Senate ratified it in 1996.
Under its terms both parties agree that they will reduce their
strategic warheads to no more than 3,500. The US currently has
around 7,700 long-range nuclear weapons, according to US government
figures. Russia has approximately 6,400.
Perhaps more importantly, the treaty also bans multiple-warhead
land-based missiles, such as Russia's SS-18 and the US's 10-warhead
MX. These weapons are so fearsome--and so easy to locate--that
they would be tempting targets in a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
That makes their existence potentially destabilizing, in the
arcane theology of nuclear deterrence.
Russia's upper house of Parliament must still pass muster
on the treaty, but its political makeup makes approval a forgone
conclusion, say analysts. Final passage would clear the way for
Russia and the US to perhaps sign a START III pact, codifying
even deeper cuts in strategic weaponry.
Russia wants START III to drive stockpiles down into the 1,500
range. US strategists have resisted such drastic reductions and
say the US needs 2,000 to 2,500 warheads to maintain national
security capability.
US and Russian negotiators held a two-day preliminary START
III negotiating session in Geneva on April 17 and 18.
The ABM Treaty remains a complicating factor in the renewed
drive for nuclear weapons pacts. The Clinton Administration has
been attempting to convince Moscow that the ABM pact should be
amended to allow for construction of limited defenses capable
of handling a strike by North Korea or other rogue states.
Russian officials have been immune to American blandishments
on missile defense, believing that it would simply create a whole
new category of high-tech defense weaponry in which US money
and science would dominate.
The Clinton Administration, for its part, chose to ignore
the ABM complication and simply welcome the progress on START
II.
"This vote is indeed a historic step which will help
improve security for all of us," said Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright.
But some members of Congress warned that Russia's rhetoric
on ABM means that trouble lies ahead.
"We're not going to be blackmailed into leaving the American
people exposed," said a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott.
One potential complication is the fact that the US Senate
will get a chance to revisit its START II vote. Russian ratification
took so long that President Clinton and President Yeltsin signed
new protocols on the treaty in 1997.
One of the protocols extends the deadline for implementation
of START II to 2007. The other, potentially more controversial,
is intended to clarify what counts as a long-range missile and
what counts as a short-range tactical weapon. This bears on the
ABM Treaty-and thus some senators may be reluctant to approve
the protocols because their vote would be an implicit recognition
of the durability of the anti-missile pact.
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Software at Bottom of Global
Hawk Accident
A software glitch caused the December mishap involving a Global
Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, according to an Air Force accident
report released April 24.
The incident occurred Dec. 6 at shortly after four in the
afternoon, after Global Hawk No. 3 had completed a successful
mission and a full-stop landing at Edwards AFB, Calif. Suddenly,
the UAV accelerated to an excessive taxi speed of 155 knots and
veered off the main runway, causing the collapse of its nose
gear and damage to its sensor suite.
"The excessive ground speed was introduced by a combination
of known software problems between the vehicle's Air Force Mission
Support System Core mission planning system and its aircraft/weapon/electronicsspecific
mission planning system," said Col. James R. Heald, Accident
Investigation Board president.
Once the vehicle started taxiing too fast, the mission planning
and validation processes did not recognize that something was
wrong, said Heald. The incident occurred too fast for the Global
Hawk's handlers to stop it from leaving the runway.
Damage was estimated at $5.3 million, according to Air Force
officials.
"Name, Rank, and
Social Security Number" Is Now a Problem
People in the armed forces used to have actual serial numbers.
That changed, however, on July 1, 1969. Thereafter, military
people used their Social Security account numbers instead. When
thus used, they were often called "service numbers."
There were jokes about giving an enemy captor your "name,
rank, and Social Security Number," but the new way of things
soon became routine.
Now, in the age of the Internet, the 1969 innovation is causing
problems. In December, Thomas Ricks of The Wall Street Journal
reported that an Oil City, Pa., "privacy advocate"
had posted Social Security Numbers of 4,000 senior military officers,
including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on his Web site. He got
the data from the Congressional Record, which published lists
of names and "service numbers" when promotion of the
officers was confirmed.
Names and Social Security Numbers were soon used in some 700
fraudulent credit card applications. Among the victims was Army
Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, the former Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. The military officers did not have to pay the
charges run up in their names, of course, but cleaning up their
credit ratings and other affairs was-to put it mildly-an inconvenience.
The operator of the Web site refused to remove the information,
and according to William M. Arkin, the online "Dot.Mil"
columnist for The Washington Post, the US attorney has declined
to take legal action because publication in the Congressional
Record put the names and numbers in the public domain.
Arkin adds that "captured American military personnel
are required to disclose their SSNs under the Code of Conduct
and the Geneva Convention. But now, according to the Marine Corps
judge advocate general's office, 'With the advent of the information
age, the disclosure of a service member's SSN to a captor presents
a new and unforseen set of security concerns.' Using the Internet,
enemies might be able to access a prisoner's financial, family,
and insurance records. 'This information can be used by our enemies
to attempt to break a [service member's] resistance to enemy
interrogations,' the Marine lawyers wrote in a memo in February."
Ironically, Arkin notes, the Social Security Number--which
service members are required to give to the enemy upon capture--is
otherwise protected by the Privacy Act.
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News Notes
- South African search and rescue divers on March 25 recovered
the body of Amn. Jeffrey Costa from the Lisbon River. Costa,
of the 352nd Special Operations Group, RAF Mildenhall, UK, disappeared
while swimming March 24. His unit was in South Africa participating
in flood relief missions in neighboring Mozambique.
- The 493rd Fighter Squadron, RAF Lakenheath, UK, was awarded
the 1999 Hughes Trophy. It marks the second time in the last
three years that the unit has won the award, which goes to the
best air-to-air superiority fighter squadron in the Air Force.
- "EAF Online" now offers USAF personnel deploying
as part of an Aerospace Expeditionary Force a cybergateway for
obtaining information needed to make sure they are fully prepared
on arrival in a theater. The address is http://aefcenter.acc.
af.mil/eafonline and is available only via military computers.
- A sergeant from the 16th Operations Support Squadron, Hurlburt
Field, Fla., was awarded the 1999 Brig. Gen. Sarah P. Wells Outstanding
Medical Technician of the year award in the senior noncommissioned
officer category. MSgt. Jerry Maynard is a 17-year veteran who
has served in the medical field his entire career.
- Holloman AFB, N.M., officially opened its new German Air
Force Flying Training Center on March 31. The new center marks
an expansion of the tactical training center for German forces.
By 2001 the flying center should be home to 750 German military
personnel and 42 Tornado aircraft.
- Boeing has developed a new paint that will increase the stealthiness
of the new F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter and thus reduce
its vulnerability to infrared threats, company officials announced
March 22. The new paint which was applied this spring to Raptor
02 at Edwards AFB, Calif., replaces conventional topcoats and
still preserves environmental requirements.
- Rudy de Leon on March 31 was sworn in as the 27th deputy
secretary of defense. He previously held the post of undersecretary
of defense for personnel and readiness. His boss, Secretary of
Defense William S. Cohen, administered the oath of office.
- On April 3, President Clinton nominated Adm. Vernon E. Clark
to be the next Chief of Naval Operations and thus replace Adm.
Jay L. Johnson as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Clark
is currently commander in chief of the US Atlantic Fleet, headquartered
at Norfolk, Va.
- The Navy announced March 31 that the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
has officially met all Milestone 3 criteria-thereby moving the
program one step closer to a full-rate production decision.
- Maj. Gen. Claude M. Bolton Jr., Air Force program executive
officer for fighters and bombers, recently presented Vice President
Al Gore's Hammer Award to the F-117 System Program Office. The
Hammer Award is sponsored by the National Partnership for Reinventing
Government, which is chaired by Gore, and honors those who have
dramatically improved governmental processes.
- For the second straight year, the Army and Air Force Exchange
Service at Randolph AFB, Texas, was named best in the world for
customer satisfaction. AAFES at Eglin AFB, Fla., was also named
best in customer service.
- Osan AB, South Korea, was named winner of the 44th annual
Hennessy Trophy for best Air Force dining facilities, multiple
facilities category. Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, won the Hennessy
in the single category.
- Crews at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., launched a Boeing Delta
II rocket carrying the IMAGE spacecraft March 25. The Imager
for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration satellite is the
first dedicated to imaging Earth's magnetosphere.
- An Air Force KC-135 pilot has been named one of the 10 recipients
of the Good Housekeeping Award for Women in Government for 2000.
Lt. Col. Kimberly D. Olson, currently a National War College
student in Washington, D.C., and formerly commander of the 96th
Refueling Squadron, Fairchild AFB, Wash., is the first Department
of Defense recipient in the history of the award.
Copyright Air Force Association. All rights reserved
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