4-year plan calls for fewer JSFs, more mobility - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

4-year plan calls for fewer JSFs, more mobility

The Air Force has its marching orders.

Every four years, Congress requires the Defense Department to map out where the services will head in the coming four years.

For the Air Force, the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review gives the OK to ideas that have support but no money to make them happen — more trainers for foreign militaries and new light-attack and light-airlift planes.

But the QDR, released Feb. 1, also lacks details and ignores some missions entirely. For generals and politicians, there’s plenty of room to make their cases about the best road forward.

What’s there

More trainers: Thousands of airmen – no number is specified — will be assigned to deploy and work with foreign air forces.

A close partnership: Greater integration of Air Force and Navy missions is called for in a program labeled the “joint air-sea battle concept.” Besides cooperation at the tactical level, the QDR envisions a joint approach to deciding which aircraft and missiles can best perform long-range strike.

Shrinking fighters: The QDR lays out a fleet of 1,224 “primary aircraft” for the Air Force. The total is 539 fewer planes than the 1,763 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters that the Air Force wants to buy in the next 20 years. Air Force officials refused to discuss the difference until after they brief lawmakers on their portion of the QDR, starting the week of Feb. 7.

Greater mobility: A force of 1,056 tankers and airlifters is the QDR goal. The Air Force would still get only the 223 C-17s it already has on order but would pick up an unspecified number of small C-27 cargo planes. Defense Secretary Robert Gates hasn’t been shy about stopping production of the C-17. He dropped it from the 2010 defense budget; Congress put it back in.

More ISR: Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — three missions that the Air Force has repeatedly said it is expanding. The QDR puts weight behind the words: 380 remote-controlled and manned surveillance planes and 65 round-the-clock patrols by 2015. The Air Force now has about 190 remote-controlled reconnaissance planes and flies 39 patrols.

Better surveillance: Today’s remote-controlled planes lack the stealth and speed to avoid advanced missile defenses. The QDR calls for surveillance aircraft able to fly in heavily defended airspace.

New gunships: The number of AC-130 gunships grows by eight, to 33. Starting in 2012, the service and U.S. Special Operations Command will convert 16 C-130Js into AC-130s, allowing the Air Force to retire eight AC-130Hs.

What’s missing

Specifics: The QDR is long on big ideas but short on details. For example, no mention is made of when a long-range bomber should be operational or how many airmen should be in uniform.

CSAR’s future: When Gates killed the Air Force’s new combat search-and-rescue helicopter program in 2009, he promised a departmentwide review of the CSAR mission. The word “rescuer” doesn’t appear in the QDR.

Operational tempo: The QDR promises to reduce operational tempo so that troops gone for a year have at least two years at home before deploying. But the review offers no deadlines or instructions for how the services should reach that goal.

The “4.5 generation fighter”: Air National Guard advocates pushed the Pentagon to consider buying upgraded versions of the F-16 and F-15E instead of only the F-35. There’s no mention of pursuing the latest versions of the nonstealthy fighters.

Electronic warfare fighters: The Air Force isn’t getting its own tactical electronic warfare protection. It will continue to depend on its own planes equipped with jamming pods or on Marine Corps and Navy jets.

The Air Force’s cyberspace role: While the study trumpets plans for a joint cyber command, there are no specifics on how each service fits into the master plan.