Challenges of today's Air Force

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Thank you, Don. I tell you, isn't it a great day to be affiliated with the United States Air Force? Thank you, Don Peterson (AFA Executive Director). Thank you, Bob Largent (AFA Chairmen of the Board), for hosting this. Thanks to your staff and the people that support you, because I think this is really a nice area to give and take, and get a feeling for what the Air Force is about, where it is going, and what it is doing in the future. And this is the kind of venue that we love to have to make sure that we can do this interaction. So thank you very much for that. It's just a terrific, terrific opportunity. 

You know, this is great to be back in my home state of Florida. There are very few Florida natives--those of you who are from the North might understand that, and so it's really neat for me to be able to come down here to Orlando. I remember when I first came to Orlando; it was before there was a Disney World of the size and magnitude that it is now, and we remember when it actually converted, and became first a Disney World. And it was kind of a remarkable place, Orlando was at the time. We actually had two airports; we had the big, in fact, if you see it that was McCoy Field that you landed at. And somewhere in the trees that have grown up now, there is a big B-52 Buffalo that is right there, kind of continuing to guard what is now the Orlando International Airport. And so it is a remarkable change that has occurred throughout our nation. It is really highlighted here in Orlando, I think in a great way, but this city has always been a major supporter of our United States Air Force, and we always appreciate it. And so, it's also great to come down here and revisit that aspect as well. 

Airmen and officials of our leadership team, especially my partner Gen. (T. Michael) Buzz Moseley, who has just today returned from the AOR (Area of Responsibility) and I'm sure he'll regale you about great stories of great Airmen that are doing just amazing things every day, just as Bob Largent said, for our Air Force. You know, 2006 was a remarkable year. As we look back, we have to look farther back because there were a lot of people that had a lot to do with the successful construction, the design, and the placement of our memorial. So above me is the image of our new (Air Force) memorial in Washington, and we were present at the dedication on October 14, and both of us felt blessed to have been the representatives of the Air Force when the memorial was ultimately and finally completed. I'd like now to run a little video for those of you who weren't there to give you a taste of flavor of the excitement that it rendered. So please run the dedication video. 

Video plays. 

I can't tell you how many critics were ready with their notepads and cell phones for that corkscrew right through the center of that bomb burst. But it was soaring. It is stunningly beautiful. It is a brilliant part of the day and the night skyline. It embodies the Air Force hallmark of reaching upwards with new technologies soaring through space, truly an amazing feat. Warm congratulations should be given to Maj. Gen Ed Grillo (Retired) who brought it in as the program manager, and Ross Perot Jr., and their entire team, but most of all, to all of the citizen donors and the corporate donors who made it real. The memorial stands on high ground overlooking the city like a guardian that emanates from a bomb burst formation familiar in our heritage, yet pointing to the future. It is a symbol of the strategic shield that your Air Force gives to our country, how fitting it is the location above the (National) Mall. That shield arches over our three powerful domains; air, our first home, space, and now cyberspace. 

The memorial also reminds us that we are in the midst of our 60th anniversary year as an Air Force, and this year of warfighting, of vigilance and deterrence, it is good to have a symbol of our heritage and aspirations. Each generation draws from heritage. General Moseley is a great leader and also a great teacher in expressing our heritage, making it real and relevant to our fight today. Buzz, I thank you for speaking with passion over the fights over Polesti, Schweinfurt, Hanoi, MiG Alley--these are stories of valor, sacrifice. I'm thankful we are side by side leading this Air Force. I have the same gratitude to serve with Gen. (John D.W.) Corley and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Rod McKinley, and with the generals of our Air Staff and their great teams. I see major combatant commanders, major command commanders, that are leaders that truly marshal our forces for today and tomorrow. I thank you for being here. I thank you for being the driving force as we position our Air Force for the future. 

I also am honored to serve with Dr. Ron Sega and Ms. Sue Payton, our undersecretary and our assistant secretary for acquisition, and each of our appointed secretariats. I'd like to say that these dedicated appointees are leaning forward in the harness to serve our Air Force in this very complex and challenging time. Frankly, Secretary Stuart Symington and Gen. Hap Arnold would be proud to serve with you during this watershed period for our Air Force. This is the moment, as it was then, and was for them, as we transition our Air Force into a very different future. My overwhelming feeling is gratitude for you all for your service. 

For me, the memorial serves in a way that reflects how I feel about how Airmen performed worldwide during this past year. The new memorial, first of all, speaks of those we have lost, and since I spoke to the Association (last) there has been indeed been valor and sacrifice. Let us remember all the Airmen worldwide that have made the ultimate sacrifice and in deed all the members of our joint team who have given their last measure. Thank you for that moment of silence. I join you in saluting them and expressing heartfelt concern for their loved ones and saluting our wounded and their loved ones, for the loss and wounds of war are borne by all of society.
We have an amazing success, more than what can be packed into one afternoon speech, but I will cover a good sampling. The key is: professional wisdom, skill, innovation, and adaptation of our Airmen. I sometimes refer to our Air Force as adaptable and flexible and we ride on the innovation and ingenuity of our Airmen. So this afternoon I will highlight success to the key points I made a year ago, then look to 2007, and renew the request a year ago for your help and assistance.

 I look to the Association for the intellectual muscle and advocacy that can advance strategic discussion and the needed debate on funding for which our country must engage, and we must engage on its behalf. I ask you to consider critically the work before us right now and the 2007-2008 period. Consider how you and how the Air Force Association can participate in forums, vehicles, and outlets to ensure the Air Force never waivers from its global vigilance, global reach, and global power portfolios. We need you to champion the cause of Air Force, our mission, and our Airmen; you, the men and women of the Air Force Association can make a profound difference. There's plenty of work to do. 

I'll frame my remarks today, remarks I'll be making before Congress, and other forums, by noting that we are at a great crossroads in the national dialogue on the sovereign options that the military delivers on behalf of the President of the United States. You see the Airmen's card, which I created just over a year ago in partnership with General Moseley that is being worked into the daily teaching and awareness of the total force. The mission to deliver sovereign options; not since the early 1950s, have these key issues been on the table for debate and commitment--on strategic situational awareness, on advanced warning, on deterrence, on reach, and on the whole spectrum of strike options. The subject is national investment in the strategic shield on which our freedoms and commerce depend. Current events in space and cyberspace; current events in other countries, show clearly the threats we must consider that are proliferating and I believe accelerating. The Air Force can never let the shield, our duty to those who forge the shield in the heat of war, and to those who follow us to temper and strengthen it. We can never allow that shield to tear; we can never place it down. In the case of the most severe threats, the question must be prepared to answer regarding those that wish our country ill is;" What do we do when reason fails?" 

This is the crux of our duty to make sure that we can provide the widest possible range of sovereign options. (Carl von) Clausewitz indicated: War is politics by other means. I would add a corollary: Negotiating from strength eases diplomacy. This debate is being engaged at the same time we embark on a surge in Iraq and plan the Air Force's role in that surge. But remember, the debate on surge is in the shadow of the parallel discussions about the specifics of when and how to draw down these forces from both Iraq and Afghanistan. We're in a time when planning has to include well-gauged management as we look to offer all options from continuing on with the Long War to the debate on the drawdown. 

And I know that we have to manage this in a way that ensures that our allies and our coalition partners will never waiver, will never worry, about whether their air sovereignty is well-protected. So therefore we have to be concerned about the impact of the debate on the future of the air component and the mission. And in the framing of the discussion of today and for much of the year, bear in mind that for the Air Force, the strategic and the tactical are sides of the same airpower coin. This means the same asset can deliver strategic, operational, or tactical effects, sometimes all on the same sortie. For the Air Force, the strategic-to-tactical spectrum is compressed and is seamless. In all plannings and discussions, we must present the urgencies of maintaining the strategic shield and the urgencies of maintaining the air bridge, and the urgencies of maintaining the seamless dimensions of tactical close air support all the way to strategic attack as we enter in the current fight. 

This allows the decision makers and all audiences to frame intelligent questions on the budget, resources, investment, and personnel. Referring to the mission side, you'll see the first bullet on the joint fight. You know a year ago, we were framing the theme of interdependence. I spoke on how the interdependent fight had evolved far faster than we might have thought. The truth is that we have engaged directly (with) ground commanders. We are proliferating connectivity with our fighters and with our ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) assets right to the ground commander and right to the tactical user. This means that we have made huge strides in cooperation with the ground force commanders in pushing the interdependent fight. Your theme this year is striking the balance. This is the goal side of the Airman's card; it lists the key factors we must balance just as your theme indicates. The list of goals also takes us towards achievements over the last year, and our look ahead to 2007. We have made great strides on each of the goals. This is the 2007 version of the card, and it solely adds two things: it converts Lean and Six Sigma into Air Force Smart Operations 21. It also then adds every Airman as ambassador to all we meet and serve in every forum and in every moment, all of us in the total force in uniform as well as our talented civilians express the Air Force values and effectiveness. This can be true also of our veterans, our friends, and our families. It is the reason why I ask your help for the Air Force Association and its members are also powerful ambassadors for our Air Force. So let's do a quick tour of 2006 and our results. 

Last September I focused on two fundamental initiatives launched since your February meeting. From 30,000-foot level, these are the major stories of 2006 for our Air Force. First, General Moseley and I assessed the federal budget environment and determined that only by finding some freed up funds within our Air Force could we begin the recapitalization of our equipment we so urgently needed. We had to live within our bounds and find resources for recapitalization. Inside the four corners of our funding Congress had given us, we had to find a way to begin a major recapitalization plan. You might recall that as I advised you when I left the movie (military) in 1973, all of our assets whether air or space averaged about eight years old. Re-entering, they averaged about 23 years old, now 24 years old. 

This was really the wakeup call, if you will, to me, to make sure that I joined with General Moseley who I knew had told the then-sitting Secretary of Defense that his number one objective was to recapitalize the Air Force, and we together had to find a plan. Asking to increase our Air Force top line in today's budget environment, to recapitalize our Air Force, as noble a goal as it is, and though it would be very well-applauded here, is a non-starter in Congress during the current budget fight. Strategy is about choices, almost always about hard choices. We determined that it was our duty and the duty of every Airman to ensure that future Airmen would be as capable to defend America with the best equipment we could make available. Our generation inherited a mighty Air Force, and we owe that same inheritance to those who follow and to our nation of tomorrow. 

As I described last year, we saw the personnel account as the fastest-growing component of our cost structure. We also realized that we could not cut our operations and maintenance with then 15, now 16 continuous years of combat duty. All of that action is taking its toll on the operation and maintainability of our equipment. We therefore began the difficult task of force-shaping to match for size with the forecasted modern equipment. This translated into some 40,000 full-time equivalent personnel slots. It was necessary, it was hard, and it was painful. I can report to you two things. First of all, our Airmen, top to bottom, get it. And they are coping with it. Second, with the ground force plus-up, we are re-assessing just how we support them, what does it mean with respect to the drawdown that we were planning, and how much of the Air Force is actually dedicated to each combat brigade as it is stood up. T

he decision to live within our bounds and demonstrate by deeds and sacrifice the importance of recapitalization has earned the attention of Congress and respect from the experts who follow defense budget matters. I believe we have started momentum that will help us continue and build on our recapitalization plan. Our concern is that we are at a point where we absolutely must assess our size relative to our ground-force brethren. We must balance this as well and now see that maybe we are in an over-constrained environment that will only be fixed with adequate total military buying power and not reductions beyond any that we have presently forecast.
Second, over the year 2006 we have worked to address the habits of thought in our Air Force and with our joint partners, the habits of thought on how we plan and how we fight. Your theme of last year pointed the way on interdependence, and we have developed the ideas of the interdependent fight, and on the spherical situation awareness that new technologies like the Rover system and the unmanned air systems make possible. These terms are now moving into the lexicon of our Airmen, into the lexicon of our ground and sea fighters and defense analysts. It is interesting that they are also moving into the lexicon of first responders, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and some members of our Justice Department. Words matter; they shape thought and they shape action, and frankly, this is a success. 

As for specific accomplishments by your Air Force in 2006, the list is long and it's impressive. I did a quick count, 21 major concrete successes, but that was only the beginning. The new tanker is our number one acquisition program. We have just launched the KC-X (tanker) proposal process, and it appears that we have a great horse race under way. This is the air bridge, and you can see that the air bridge is what we have been doing into the fight going on for 17 years. The term is now appearing in the public lexicon as we have said to them we established the air bridge to Southwest Asia during the spring of 1990. We believe this air bridge will continue to extend to Southwest Asia till probably 2010, at least that's what our planning is calling for. Could it be beyond? I remember last saying it this way--who would have thought in 1993 that we would have been in Southwest Asia in 2007? And now it is 2007, and how far can you see? Well for us in the Air Force, as I tell my senatorial and congressional colleagues, we can't say no. 

We have to say when and where, we can't say whether, whether or not we will go, we have to say when we will be there and how we're going to accomplish it. We're finding out that even internationally we are relied on as the Air Force of choice, perhaps even the Air Force of last resort. It shows in our humanitarian relief; it shows in missions that we derive or take from some of our coalition partners. It clearly derives from some of the actions that we see within our own joint force. This image and other strategic communication products have opened the discussion on the huge recap needs that the Air Force faces. 

Just to boil things down in rough terms, we'll take delivery this coming year of about 60 aircraft. With a fleet of about 6,000 aircraft, this makes a 100-year recapitalization rate. It is a great challenge to stay effective with such an aging fleet. And the issue includes our satellites as well. We have placed this issue firmly into the congressional and executive branch planning process. That is a success. The short of it is, we don't want to arm or train our Airmen with the proverbial wooden rifles, like those in the unprepared days of World War II. They deserve the best in tankers, fighting machines, search and rescue, and mobility aircraft, as well as ISR platforms.
CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue) has launched and with urgent timing. We look forward to the GAO (General Accounting Office) finally resolving and moving ahead with that program. We believe we succeeded in Congress in getting them to agree to retire a portion of our aging fleet, but we would like to be assigned the fleet management role of our own Air Force. And we would therefore have complete control of our aircraft inventory, thus freeing up precious resources for recapitalization. We understand the debate might go on between the combatant commanders and ourselves. This is a healthy tension, and we want that to be the argument. 

The F-35 procurement continues. The first plane is flying successfully with very strong praise for its performance. Eighty-seven of the planned total buy of now 183 F-22s are operating with our Airmen. We are learning of the ability of these fifth generation fighters to be the best sensor on the battlefield. That gives us ISR data that we would like to disseminate in the information net. An exercise in Alaska pointed this out after expending ordnance the F-22A was tasked to remain in the fight for its data-gathering and target-monitoring power. I foresee these fifth generation plans evolving towards an additional duty as an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance asset. That is assets poised to complement the duties that other assets might be performing. The potential is huge, and we're only beginning to gauge and deploy this power. This may allow these fifth generation fighters to be very effective managers of legacy assets into the battle. 

We're adding 10 C-17s to the inventory. The assembly line will continue through at least fiscal 2009. Acquisition of these aircraft was an important step in making sure that we can maintain a warm line. We hope that our coalition partners will be major buyers, which will help us further extend the line. On long-range strike, our new bomber for 2018, we hear brought planning back on track. General Moseley refers to range and payload as the soul of our Air Force. Clearly, modernizing a bomber for the 21st century fight is an imperative and we are under way with much more to come.
As I mentioned a year ago, ground force connectivity through the Rover technology was relatively new to our Air Force. Army units in the fight were simply just becoming aware of it. We had gone from about 240 Rover download computers in the hands of ground fighters, to now over 1,200, with 700 more on order to include the allies. And Homeland Security is now acquiring them. As I have mentioned training and using such download links is proliferating across the services. This is actually rapid change and is saving the lives of ground fighters and minimizing fratricide wherever we can.
To fill needs where the Army is unable to fill the ground-fighting ranks, the Air Force is providing Airmen for ground fighter taskings in addition to long-provided JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) role. We provide improvised explosive disposal clearance, perimeter defense, and convoy fighters, and gun truckers. We're in the air fight and in the ground fight with a vengeance--16,000 Airmen have been or are now deployed in the ground fight. They do bring an Airmen's eye to the fight, and are doing a terrific job. But the question remains for how long, especially given the ground force buildup, perhaps it is time to re-assess this as well. Because we all know that in the limit every Airman or rifleman fails the test, it fails to leverage the Airman's role. It fails to leverage the consequences of not having air cover. And so the nation must keep the leverage that Airmen bring. This is another area where you as the Air Force Association can certainly nurture the debate. The convoy story has been transformed, not just by convoy schooling, but by smart work to get convoys off the road wherever possible by using aircraft to move supplies, the watchword in dealing with asymmetric attack by these improvised explosive devices is to make the roadway IED (Improvised Explosive Device) irrelevant through intratheater airlift and joint precision airdrop system. We have taken approximately 3,500 trucks and 8,000 of our brave men and women off of the roads per month, in both Afghanistan and Iraq, using C-130s, C-17s, as well as precision drop. Be prepared--you're going to be hearing more about this, we're extremely proud of it, but be prepared to be amazed. 

In a recent talk to the Air Staff, former Senator Phil Graham said that a key American trait is that Americans change faster and easier than anyone in the world. We see this in innovation of our Airmen. About a year ago, our F-15 Airmen were thinking about how they could execute night strafing. It seemed hard, maybe undoable. Last month, I learned it was being done in daily ops in the fight, that is, actually it is, now called easy. I got in an F-15 simulator at Seymour Johnson (Air Force Base, N.C.) where you could work a night strafe from hard to easy in a matter of months. These are American Airmen; these are American Airmen in the fight. 

Each of these pieces of success in the air fight is being integrated, and that is the larger success. In Najaf (Iraq), as you had heard in the past few weeks, the integrated information that was made available to the combined Iraqi and US forces enabled the Iraqi ground commander to assess that his troops' lives would be saved and many more of the enemy killed by using the facilities of air strikes. In Afghanistan, the 10th Mountain Division commander, then Maj. Gen. Ben Freakley, showed me how he applies the principles of economy of force and maneuver to use Air Force air strikes and US ground force blocking troops, to essentially herd the foe into killing zones. The key is situation awareness through interconnected sensors and streaming video. 

We desire to engage the debate on energy to see if there's an opportunity to change the world view that we operate in. Thus, we procured 100,000 gallons of US-manufactured blended synthetic jet fuel which we successfully tested on the ground and in the air on a B-52. We are working towards full certification of a 50/50 blend in the B-52 by early in 2008. We recognize that defense will always have a call on the nation's resources, but we should minimize our impact and maybe even spark a different future. We are strongly on track with the President and his call for developing alternative fuels. Thanks to Dr. Sega as well as Bill Andersen and the energy team--we are the largest purchaser of renewable energy in the nation, and number three on the entire planet. This has led the Air Force to winning the Environment Protection Agency's 2006 Climate Protection Award. Alternative fuel vehicle acquisitions coupled with bio-diesel consumption enabled the Air Force to exceed the Energy Policy Act of FY06. 

Now let's turn a little bit to our constellation of satellites and our launch operations. Space is no longer a sanctuary. Perhaps many of you recognize the fragility of considering it a sanctuary, but that veil has now been pierced. This change is seismic in nature. The recent Chinese test marks a turning point in the work our country must do to assure space dominance. Freedom of space is a basic to commerce. There can be no place in space for piracy or blackmail, and the Chinese, willingly or not, have sent a message that our guard must be stronger. Their deed even posed urgent questions about safety of some other space vessels, such as the Space Station, an orbiting vehicle colliding with even tiny debris can be cataclysmic. Huge segments of the United States and in deed the world economy depend on these satellite systems. The media, including satellite radio, are just one example. We consider the auto industry and its reliance on satellites for the huge sales of GPS (Global Positioning System) devices in cars. 

We're making progress in all the space areas. Ron Sega has stabilized space acquisition with his back-to-basics approach with a focus to deliver on time and on cause, bringing programs that were lacking, like TSAT (Transformational Satellite) and NPOESS, (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System) back on track. And in the area of small sats, TACSAT II (Tactical Satellite) and the micro-sat experiment launched last December, is a great example of a successful partnership between the Air Force Research Laboratories, NASA, Navy, and the Army, which all had a stake in the outcome. TACSAT II tested the rapid design, build, and test concept within 15 months of authority to proceed, and tested responsive launch, checkout, and operation, launching with little more than a week of call-out from a stored state down-linking data directly to a test theater. 

Now, let's look a little bit at cyberspace, our newest domain. A critical factor is that in the cyber domain, our foes can mass. There is asymmetry, the cost of entry is low, and the enemy can throw many trained operators into the fight. But the asymmetry can run two ways; by applying the cyber principles, it is possible to use the foe's own cyber communications network against them. Cyberspace is a fighting domain where the principles of war do apply, and we need true warfighters in this domain. So today at 8th Air Force, Lt. Gen. Bob Elder is leading the changing culture in cyber from a mind-set that is ruled by intelligence gathering and message-carrying, to a warfighter footing. Like space, there is no longer a sanctuary for cyberspace. The end state is to present to the President and the combatant commanders our strong cyberspace fighting options to ensure our freedom of action in cyberspace and perhaps deny freedom of action to our adversaries.
 
Let's turn to the other goals that are listed on the card. Like Air Force Smart Operations 21, the Air Force is the largest organization ever to attempt to bring Lean and some Six Sigma vectors throughout all operations. I am told the scope and the promise of success is historic. We can take pride in the boldness of our effort, and we can take pride that the work is paying off. At the Ogden Air Logistics Centers, all F-16 production operations have been transformed. The squadron has a 30 percent reduction in flow days, a 75 percent reduction in rework, and an unprecedented 100 percent customer on-time delivery rate. They were a 2006 Shingo Prize Silver Award winner, Shingo being the inventor of the Toyota manufacturing methods. 

On quality of life, housing privatization has accelerated our ability to give military families safe, affordable, and well-maintained housing in a community where they chose to live. We have awarded 19 housing privatization projects at 18 installations with almost 20,000 new homes. By partnering with the private sector, an investment of only $216 million has brought us over $3 billion in private sector development. We are on track to privatize 72 percent of our United States continental inventory by the end of this fiscal year. One of the most novel things we've done is to centralize the Judge Advocate General claims processing center. Many of you who were PCS-ed (Permanent Change of Station) and moved around by your Air Force may have never sustained moving damage. Many of us did. Our new claims service center was conceived in early 2006, and less than a year later, it began accepting and paying claims for lost or damaged household goods. Now we consolidated each base, you had to go see the Judge Advocate General--he was the one that signed off on your claim. 

By March 1, the claims service center will be operating 24/7, making claims support available online, by phone, all the time worldwide. We are getting money into the hands of our Airmen within eight days of filing rather than the 56 days, which was a vast improvement from what I remember in 1973. Our logistics and A-4 community is finalizing plans to eliminate base decals and the numerous hours tracking this antiquated system. Innovations in security along with ID checks around our Air Force that are mandatory have rendered this process obsolete. The personnel and resources saved will help lessen the burden on our stressed security forces and actually reduce the threat to our Airmen outside the gates. 

I conclude the 2006 wrap-up with news from just last week; fittingly, it is about the innovation of Airmen. As many of you know, our work on the small diameter bomb brought a valuable, reliable weapon system on time and on budget. And it was effective immediately in the fight. Now this was one that was literally conceived and brought to the department's attention in 2001, and flying and fighting in late 2005, being perfected in 2006. The Air Force and the Boeing contractor teams received the William J. Perry Award for this achievement, and it is extraordinarily well deserved. We owe thanks for this accomplishment to our Airmen and to our Air Staff. Each of them and many here today who are seated here contributed to all that we did in 2006, and they are to be congratulated. Thank you very much. 

Now let's turn to 2007. Above me are my focus points. The goals remain the core for actions. Every Airman is an ambassador to all we meet and serve--this is vital to our Air Force life. It is true whether or not we are overseas, but it is especially true when we are overseas, as I've visited with people at Incirlik (Air Base, Turkey), as I visited with people at Misawa (Air Base, Japan), I recognize that every interaction in those countries by our Airmen they remember. They remember and they will relate it. They will relate the good stories, and they will relate the bad stories, which tell you that every Airman is an ambassador. We need to make sure that the cultural awareness in our Airmen and our officer corps is really made highlighted. But it goes on. Even here in the United States, our relationship with our surrounding community is important, and we cannot forget that as we go into the communities we do represent our Air Force to that community in that way. 

The Africa Command was recently announced by the President, showing this goal was going to apply yet further as we expand into a whole new continent of relevant activity. Next is the information mosaic. It is the next step in our habit of thought. All information we gather from platforms can be transmitted to what our thoughts of ordinarily of strategic centers but also to tactical centers. And truth as I said earlier, for the Air Force, this is seamless. Somebody talks about WiFi, and our pilots look up puzzled, because they have been on over-the-air communications since the aircraft was invented.
So put up the slide please. The mosaic refers to the meshing and transmittal of all information to decision-makers. I call this the stump, the band slide. It shows a lot of action, a lot along the information channels, but it shows the direction that our interdependent fight is actually headed. 

The capabilities that you see in the information mosaic raise two fundamental points, both will stretch us and change our habits of thought. Point one is that this whole stream of communication operates on trust. Trust that the data collected is not corrupted by the foe; trust that our air tasking order is not a counterfeit placed by the foe. The cyber shield must defend the whole system and the mosaic--it is an imperative. Point two is that the system of aerial delivery, spherical awareness, and ground maneuver in the interdependent fight has evolved to a new place. We live in an era of now what I call vertical logistics, and this refers to really what (Army) Major General Freakley is now doing in Afghanistan. 

If I could have the next slide, this is really a simplistic illustration of a battlefield dilemma that we often face when we're in remote locations, and we have a discovery that the enemy in fact is right in front of us. This illustrates the principles of economy of force, using the maneuver warfare and the tactical setting in this new century. On the offensive, maneuver and situation awareness, fully employing the information mosaic keeps the fight at stand-off distances. Leveraging our asymmetric firepower to deter or conclude any battle, and the defense (inaudible), but here in the discovery process, suddenly we may find we need in fact better ground power and better munitions, and we can deliver those now by the joint precision airdrop system or the ICDS (Improved Container Delivery System). But we create another opportunity for use of our asymmetric firing power, partnering with the ground force commanders and actually plotting the routes of exfiltration along with the routes of infiltration. 

You'll notice that as it comes we can actually now call in an air strike on that position using the information mosaic, and finally to exfiltrate, we can resupply the unit and if you will march them home. All of this is an illustration of some things that have been going on in Afghanistan even today as we have troops in very difficult to reach positions in the mountains. They actually scout those positions of infiltration and exfiltration using ISR platforms to pre-flight, pre-fight the battle, if you will. And then they use vertical logistics to execute the battle. 

We will continue to husband our resources, gaining efficiencies and recapping by bootstrap. We will continue on that course but we can also aim for more support from Congress, so that we are supported perhaps by any additional funds that knead and add to the resources that we're generating within our top line. Most in Congress are extraordinarily sympathetic to the fact that our equipment is aging. We are now older than the Navy ships. We are now older than the Navy submarine force. And we talk about this in a very unique way, because you'll see in the supplemental, we even ask for joint strike fighters in lieu of F-15s and F-16s, just as the Navy is asking for V-22s in lieu of CH-46s, which have not been produced for 25 years. We really desire strongly to move to a new footing of fifth generation airplanes, and we don't want to buy the existing F-15K or the F-16s for the United Arab Emirates. These are fine airplanes; they do not fit our logistics system. 

In global vigilance, we want TSAT, AEHF (Advanced Extremely High Frequency), Wideband Gap-Filler, Space-based infrareds, space radar, the Global Hawk Block 20, Predator, and Reaper. Global reach--we are looking for the KC-X, the C-130J and the Joint Cargo Aircraft. We also look for better modernization of our C-17s, perhaps the addition of some defensive system, and then the C-5 RERP (Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining) program, the re-engining program. In global power, the F-22 multiyear is this year's engagement. The combat search and rescue helicopter, the HH-47. The F-35, the long-range strike three-pronged strategy; all of this is to be worked in 2007. 

To ensure America's continued technological dominance, we're going to partner with NASA, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), other services, the intelligence communities. Examples are the next generation propulsion, cyberspace information technology, directed energy, hypersonics, composites, and nanotechnology. Our work is cut out for us.
In the near term, our readiness faces decline as the operations tempo remains high and we drain an inordinate amount of resources on legacy aircraft. I will offer that without the continuous investment we seek, our readiness will continue to decline. Operating a smaller, older fleet is the underlying cause for decline in readiness. To put it in perspective, we're flying at the same rate 13 years ago with 1,280 fewer aircraft and with older equipment than we had 13 years ago. 

Operating at a higher tempo also inhibits required ground training, hampering readiness further. The Air Force's resources sustained two AEFs (Air and Space Expeditionary Force), but in some stressed communities, we sustained four AEFs continuously. At the end of the day, I believe the American public will pay what is plainly needed for defense. It has to be explained, and our duty is to make the case. I'm showing you where we are now, and what your amazing Airmen are giving you today, but we must be able to not only sustain today but field the platforms to maintain our future. The Air Force Association can bring to bear this influential writing and muscle. 

Earlier, I thanked General Moseley for his service side-by-side with me. It's a rare privilege to offer my service as your Secretary of the Air Force, and that service is enhanced by serving with all of you in this audience. To conclude, I actually have a video that emerged from the coverage of President Ford's funeral. Citizens captured this video. We actually found it on YouTube, but it does show that our country indeed knows and follows your Air Force wherever we lead. So play the video, please. That was 21 F-15s from Seymour-Johnson AFB, N. C., (which) flew all the way up to Michigan to honor the President at that funeral. It is my honor to have been with you today. Thank you for your service to America. Thank you for your service to our Air Force. May God continue to bless our Air Force and our nation. Thank you very much.