Wynne says drawdown may be falling short - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Wynne says drawdown may be falling short

Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne gave the bluntest indication yet that the planned drawdown of the service by 40,000 airmen is falling short of leaders’ expectations.

“It is not working,” Wynne said at a Wednesday morning briefing sponsored by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington-based think tank.

The purpose of the drawdown was to free up money to recapitalize the Air Force’s aging aircraft fleet, Wynne said, but it is not having the desired effect of leading to a younger fleet.

The average age of aircraft now is 23.9 years, according to the Air Force, and Wynne said that number will rise to 26.5 years at the end of the current five-year defense plan.

“We have only altered the slope ... of the age of our fleet,” he said, meaning the Air Force has succeeded only in slowing the increase in average aircraft age rather than reversing it.

Wynne said that when he became Air Force secretary in 2005, bringing with him 27 years experience in the private sector, he saw a dire situation that demanded attention.

“I convinced the chief of staff of the Air Force that what we needed to do was voluntarily downsize and restructure the force just like an industrialist would do in order to gain the resources to recapitalize his asset base,” he said. “It isn’t working.”

Wynne then sounded an even grimmer note.

“What does that mean to an industrialist?” he said. “It means that you are going out of business. It is simply a matter of time.”

The Air Force has said it needs $20 billion more per year to recapitalize its fleet. There have been no signs that the money is forthcoming.

But there are growing indications that Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley might not continue the drawdown to the planned end strength of 316,000 at the end of fiscal 2009.

Moseley told Air Force Times on Aug. 21 that he may reassess the drawdown plans at about 328,000 end strength, which will be achieved by the end of fiscal 2008.

The force is currently about 334,000 strong.