(Air Force Times) Backtalk: Defense cuts coming, but rest of U.S. budget also should suffer

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Defense cuts coming, but rest of U.S. budget also should suffer
By Robert F. Dorr

The Air Force can’t help but suffer as we descend into an unprecedented economic crisis.

The new administration has delayed submitting its 2010 defense budget until April, but cuts in base military spending wouldn’t be surprising. In a Jan. 27 appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Robert Gates testified that the recession will force the Pentagon to make “hard choices.”

Here is what I predict you can expect in the weeks ahead:

• An end to C-17 ($218 million each) production: Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz says we can live with 111 C-5 Galaxy ($167.7 million each) and 205 C-17 Globemaster III transports. Others argue the C-5 for the upgrade program is over budget and behind schedule and warn of harm to the U.S. industrial base if we shutter the Long Beach, Calif., plant that produces C-17s.

• Challenges to the F-22 ($355 million each) Raptor: Watch for the F-22 to be placed on life support, with only a handful purchased to keep the Marietta, Ga., assembly line warm. Schwartz says we need 243 Raptors — not the 187 now scheduled — but we may get 200, forcing our fighter community to stay with older aircraft.


Rest of article at: http://airforcetimes.com/community/opinion/airforce_backtalk_budget_022309/%2e