Our strategic planning framework provides us a breakdown, if you will, into a set of missions, nuclear deterrence, power projection for conventional conflicts, rapid global mobility, and the control of the high ground, all of the space and related surveillance and intelligence assets, and we would also like to keep our eye on the ball with respect to relations with allies and security partners all around the world. Nuclear Forces Sustain Deterrence ... the bedrock of national security, even as forces undergo historic change The nuclear deterrence area first continues, of course, to be the bedrock of national security, but has been the area which has seen very great change indeed in recent times. You are aware of the initiatives beyond the START Treaty that the President has taken last September, and again in January of this year, so we now have all the Minuteman II's off alert, and all bombers are off alert. We will be accelerating the drawdown of Minuteman II. We have canceled small ICBM's, we have canceled Peacekeeper missile procurement, and we have canceled the rail garrison program, scaled back the advanced cruise missile and, of course, have proposed stopping the B-2 program with 20 bombers, 20 bombers delivered to the operational force. We plan to accelerate the drawdown of the Minuteman, download Minuteman III to one warhead, and upgrade that force to keep it alive much longer, and we will eliminate all land-based multiple warhead missiles if the republics of the former Soviet Union agree, and we will take appropriate offsetting steps. Power Projection In the power projection area, the conventional forces, the conventional defense area, we have many changes going on in the Air Force. We have been through or are in the process of going through major organizational restructuring. As you noted in your opening remarks, Mr. Chairman, we are taking down, as of June 1, the Strategic Air Command, the Tactical Air Command, and the Military Airlift Command, and stand up instead two commands, the Air Combat Command and Air Mobility Command. The Air Combat Command will integrate all of the elements of air power that are required to conduct the kind of integrated air campaign that you saw in operation in the gulf. Our theater air forces will be more fully in control of all of the types of aircraft that are employed under their command, and we are moving aggressively the formation of composite wings all throughout this new command structure and in the theater commands as well. As part of all this, the Active/Reserve mix is changing dramatically in the Air Force to a much heavier reliance on Reserves. I have already mentioned that we are sustaining the strength. Let me show you what is happening in summary with the Active/Reserve mix in the Air Force. This is the fighter force, so we are now counting combat fighters and reconnaissance aircraft all in the fighter wing equivalents count. I have added in this chart our air defense interceptors so as to get all the fighter forces together, and you will notice we are reducing 35 percent by 1995 in the fighter force. So you see the size of the pie is going down, but the point of this chart really is that the reserve components are going from 38 to 48 percent. We will be very near 50/50 in the fighter world in the Air Force of 1995. Tanker & Airlift Force Structure Likewise, if you look at the heavy aircraft, tankers and airlifters at the starting point, 1988, we were less than one-third in the Reserve components and at the end, we will move to nearly one-half of all of our airlifters and tanker forces in the Reserve component. Notice, however, the much smaller drawdown, only a 9-percent reduction, again in keeping with the reshaping of the Air Force to a very different mix of forces for the post-cold war world, but very strong reliance on the Guard and Reserve in both cases. Now we have alongside this tried to maintain, despite all of the cutbacks and program cancellations, some of which you referred to, Mr. Chairman, we have tried to maintain a prudent modernization program with the 1993 budget. We have the proposal to stop the B-2 program after 20 aircraft are delivered to the operational forces. We propose continuing with the F-22 air superiority fighter, and the AMRAAM missile. We have laid in the start of a program of enhanced conventional capabilities for our heavy bomber force, the B-1 and the B-52, and we have programs of improved conventional munitions to increase the productivity of this smaller force we will wind up with in the future. The B-2: Core Capability "...the U.S. response in regional crises must be decisive, • The B-2 conventional mission - Secretary Cheney, 31 Jan 92 Target enemy warmaking potential - Destroy time-critical targets in any scenario, anywhere - Attack massed enemy ground and armor forces within hours • The B-2 capability - Greater range, payload and superior stealth characteristics 20 B-2s is a core conventional strategic force A few words on the B-2. The Secretary has pointed out the significance of this aircraft in crisis response in the future. We have focused the B-2's future mission on conventional operations while, of course, planning to retain and continue its capability for nuclear deterrence. We will focus this smaller B-2 force on destroying those time critical targets that can arise in any scenario, that any CINC will want to be able to get to quickly in order to deny the enemy the opportunity to inflict damage that we do not want to undertake onto friendly forces. This will include holding at risk emerging weapons of mass destruction in some States, and will include the capability to attack especially massed enemy armored ground forces on very short notice, and will include, of course, augmenting the kind of capability we saw from the F-117 in the gulf, being able to perform such missions from much longer distances away, to destroy the backbone of enemy air and air defense capabilities, and this kind of stealthy attack capability is, of course, one essential ingredient of assuring that we establish air superiority early on in any future conflict. The B-2 brings its greater range and payload and stealth characteristics to the table in this mission, and we would plan on two operational squadrons of 8 aircraft each, 16 PAA out of that total production quantity of 20 aircraft. We will be able to achieve that size force, 16 PAA, about a 60percent increase over what would have been available, what would be available from the 15-aircraft force that some had proposed last year, and we could do that for an incremental cost of $2.6 billion. |