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Senate panel vote doesn’t stop drawdown

The Senate Armed Services Committee turned down the Air Force’s request to stop the drawdown.

The Thursday vote — to approve the fiscal 2009 $612 billion Defense authorization bill — leaves the Senate panel’s counterpart, the House Armed Services Committee, as the Air Force’s next best hope for halting the cuts.

The Air Force declined to comment on the Senate decision or if the service will press the House for more airmen. “The Air Force will support whatever budget is presented,” said Air Force spokesman Capt. Tom Wenz.

The House may be more open to the idea of ending the drawdown.

Last year, the House Armed Services Committee directed the Air Force to come up with a personnel request based on the manpower needed to meet current and projected needs, not a personnel request based on staying with an already tight defense budget.

An Air Force report given to congressmen in February said the service needed 330,154 active-duty airmen in 2009.

The airmen are needed to fill existing shortages, such as adding 5,223 aircraft maintainers, and expand other missions, including flying remote-controlled aircraft.

The goal of 330,154 airmen could be paid for by adding $690 million to personnel spending, roughly the production cost of five F-22A Raptors, and not spending $312 million on separation payments to officers.

The report also called for raising the troop level to 335,661 by 2015.

In addition to those positions, the Air Force estimated Air Force Special Operations Command needed an additional 3,200 airmen to fill its long-term expansion plans.

A problem is that when the official Air Force budget request was made earlier in February, the Air Force set its 2009 active-duty end strength at 316,600. The service expects to end 2008 with around 328,600 airmen.

Instead of talking about the need for more airmen, or at least keeping the ones they have, lawmakers grilled Air Force leaders on:

* The decision to award the KC-X tanker contract to Northrop Grumman

* The mishandling of nuclear weapons and components

* And the scandal involving the award of a contract to have a video show accompany performances by the Thunderbirds.

In public forums, Air Force leaders were more likely to talk about the budget-busting need for 200 more F-22A Raptors than not cutting 12,000 airmen.