THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 129, July 20, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OBAMA IS STRIPPING NATIONAL DEFENSE
By Alan Caruba
THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY & ITS IMPACT ON U.S. MILITARY DEFENSE & NATIONAL SECURITY: IRRATIONALITY &
ABSURDITY DRIVING DECISIONS OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION THAT AFFECT AMERICA'S VITAL NATIONAL
DEFENSE CAPABILITIES -- PUTTING AT RISK OUR JET FIGHTER FLEET & OUR AIR TRANSPORT FLEET -- ACTING IN A
RECKLESS MANNER & GAMBLING WITH THE FATE OF THE AMERICAN NATION
FULL STORY:
There is no single duty that the President of the U.S.A. has, as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, that is
more important than ensuring the nation’s engines of defense remain at a level that will deter and defend against any
attack upon America or its allies.
How is that going under the Obama administration? As this is being written, the U.S. Air Force and Navy are seeking
alternative ways of powering their aircraft, after having been ordered to cut fuel costs by $20 billion. The Obama
solution includes an August, 2010, test flight of the C-17 transport aircraft attempt to fly missions on tallow, which is
a nice way of describing animal fat.
The push for biofuels notwithstanding, the notion approaches absurdity, considering the fact that, beneath the Arctic
National Wildlife Reserve, there are millions of untapped barrels of oil to power military aircraft. The absurdity is
compounded by the White House attempt to shut down deep water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been
struck down by the U.S. Courts not once, but twice.
My interest in the status of our air defense was piqued while watching a recent C-SPAN broadcast of some U.S. Senate
committee discussing funding of the C-17. I paid scant attention, until one Senator said, “We don’t have the money.”
Suffice to say, that caught my attention.
Of course we have the money! There are billions unspent in the failed “stimulus” act and millions more wasted weekly
across the spectrum of a government that funds all manner of idiotic “research” programs of dubious value. Some $20
million was just spent on signs touting construction projects funded by the stimulus bill.
As Frank Gaffney, the Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy, recently noted, “Barack Obama came to
office promising to ‘fundamentally transform’ America.” Gaffney and others are increasingly concerned that Obama is
“changing the United States from ‘the world’s sole superpower’ to a nation that may require the permission, or at least
the help, of others to project power and defend its interests around the globe.”
Nothing invites mischief and outright attack more than weakness. Theodore Roosevelt said, “The pacifist is as surely a
traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.” The latter is a good description these days of
Iran.
“The backbone of America’s power-projection capability is its ability to get to a fight ‘the firstest with the mostest,’”
wrote Gaffney. Something tells me that doing it with aircraft fueled by slaughterhouse renderings is a very bad idea.
No less important is the future of our fighter jet fleet. It is the subject of a huge congressional debate concerning the
next generation of fighters, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). More specifically, the debate involves the engine to
power it. But the rub doesn’t involve which engine to use; the argument is whether the F-35 engine should be
sole-sourced to a single manufacturer or whether production should be shared by two manufacturers.
One engine is the F135, made by Pratt & Whitney. As with any technological advance, Pratt & Whitney encountered
various problems in the development process because the F-35 is designed for use by three different service branches,
each with different missions and engine requirements.
More to the point, these services comprise the overwhelming majority of our national jet fighter capability; so, many in
Congress are advocating the production of a second engine. That would be the F136, produced jointly by General
Electric and Rolls Royce.
The issue centers on fleet reliability and comes down to an easy and obvious question: Is it prudent for 80-90% of the
U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corp’s fighter jet fleet to be dependent on a single engine from a sole-source
provider? The answer is no.
If mechanical flaws or difficulties occur, or if that sole-source provider suffers an industrial accident, a labor dispute or
terrorist attack, the entire fighter fleet could be grounded.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) laid it out in starker terms, noting, “Because the JSF is expected to be the
primary fighter aircraft in the U.S. inventory, and Pratt & Whitney will also be the sole-source provider of F119 engines
for the F-22A aircraft, the Department of Defense is faced with the potential scenario where almost the entire fleet could
be dependent on similar engine cores, produced by the same contractor in a sole-source environment.”
Despite the strategic risks noted by the GAO, the GE/Rolls Royce engine has been batted about in Congress like a ping
pong ball. As Defense Industry Daily noted some years ago, “The Pentagon attempted to remove Fiscal Year
2007 funding from the F-35 Lightning II’s second engine option, the GE/Rolls Royce F136.” But eliminating that funding
wasn’t so neat and tidy, and the newspaper further reported, “Many in the U.S. Congress, meanwhile, were openly
skeptical of handing Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine the keys to the entire F-35 fleet.”
F136 funding was re-inserted and development continued on schedule until the FY 2008 budget came around and the
Pentagon again tried to remove funding. Congress disagreed and, supported by the GAO’s estimate of $20 billion of tax
savings over the life of the program with both the F135 and the F136 engines, again reinstated funding.
Production on the F-35 is increasing, but testing is not expected to be complete before 2014 and the engine issue remains
unresolved. The Obama administration now considers avoiding the risk of a systemic sole-source engine failure as a
luxury and seems willing to back up that position.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has reportedly urged President Obama to veto the 2011 defense authorization bill if
the final version includes any money for the GE/Rolls Royce engine.
I cite this to alert you to the irrationality that is driving decisions affecting our most vital national defense capabilities.
When a Secretary of Defense proposes a veto of an entire defense authorization over an additional engine for the next
generation of fighter jets, we’re witnessing something that’s not just absurd; it’s reckless.
The notion that we can’t afford a second F-35 engine is not true. What we cannot afford is to permit our jet fighter fleet
and our air transport fleet be put at an indefensible risk when the fate of the nation rests upon both.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
Military Defense & National Security
Military Weaponry & International Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, commentator and business and science writer,
he is the Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about "scare campaigns" designed to influence
public opinion and public policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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