Note from AFA President -- CSAF/SECAFx2, op-ed

Last week Secretary of the Air Force Donley and Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Schwartz both gave interesting talks at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium.  What struck me about both talks was the severity of the defense cuts to DOD … as well as what the future might hold if sequestration kicks in on 1 Jan 13.  [Recall that sequestration is what happened when the “Super Committee” failed to agree on spending cuts last fall.]  Sequestration will hit every DOD account at the same percentage level and cause almost every DOD contract to be renegotiated.  It will levy another $500B cut on DOD – one that the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have called “devastating.”

You can find Sec Donley’s talk here:  http://www.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120229-014.pdf

You can find Gen Schwartz’s talk here:  http://www.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-120223-024.pdf

Secondly, in a little noticed piece in the American Interest, Gen Schwartz and the Chief of Naval Operations ADM Greenert have published a very good piece which describes the concept of Air-Sea Battle. 

A quote from the piece to interest you:

“With Air-Sea Battle, we are reinvigorating the historic partnership between our two departments to protect the freedom of the commons and ensure operational access for the Joint Force. Air-Sea Battle provides the concepts, capabilities and investments needed to overcome the challenges posed by emerging threats to access like ballistic and cruise missiles, advanced submarines and fighters, electronic warfare and mines.”

You can find a link to the piece at:  http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1212

Finally, a number of our members have published op-eds in the past several weeks.  I will send you some of the best ones in the future.  To start you on the right track, I offer one by Gen (Ret) Loh that appeared in the Kansas City Star:  http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/21/3443207/airpower-provides-deterrence-at.html

For your consideration.

Mike

Michael M. Dunn
President/CEO
Air Force Association

“The only thing more expensive than a first-rate Air Force is … a second-rate Air Force.”  --  Senate staff member