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From our forums

Gates’ program cuts

Well, as a captain who is getting ready for his third deployment (about 14 months after returning from my last 15-month deployment with the Army), I say, bravo. We don’t need 60 more F-22s, except as a hedge against theoretical future threats that will take decades to develop. We don’t need a second airborne laser that, as the secretary said, has no plausible operational role. The SECAF and the CSAF understand this, which is why they wrote their article, not because they are servile pygmies.

— ColdinGardez

Should CSAR be joint?

Who owns the majority of [rotor-wing] assets? The Army. What is the Air Force’s main [combat search-and-rescue] asset? An RW. Give me one good reason why we would prevent this mission from going joint, other than to protect our territory. This isn’t gang warfare. We are on the same team.

— sigecaps

The Army does indeed have RW assets, but their primary mission isn’t CSAR, it’s air support and/or personnel delivery with some CSAR training thrown in. The AF CSAR forces train primarily for that: CSAR, in all environments, under all conditions, and with specialized equipment to do so. No other branch has ... four career fields devoted to different aspects of CSAR. Army and AF may both have RW assets, but they’re different animals.

— Aitrus

That is the point. The SECDEF wants the Army to be a part of that by making CSAR a joint mission. If it was SECDEF-mandated, there would be a CSAR-dedicated [military occupational specialties] in the Army with the proper training and equipment. So I ask ... again, why should the Air Force fight for CSAR to be an exclusive mission to our service as implied by the Air Force Times writer, other than the obvious reason [to protect our turf]?

— sigecaps