Defense Politics

I was admiring Hullabaloo's take on the Marine Corps' MRAP acquisition decision and going through the comments to the post when I saw this comment:

It's even more pathetic when you read stories about the Air Force. They've been at a war tempo for the last 17 years, the average age of their aircraft is around 25 years, and the fleet is wearing out. A recent news story was about a Vietnam war vintage C-130 that was just retired to the boneyard.

Let's not forget that the Air Force is still flying tankers based on the 707 that are rusting away while new replacements are mired in procurement scandals and lawsuits by competitors. F-15's models A-D are being grounded - again - because they've developed a disturbing tendency to break apart in the air just behind the cockpit. Meanwhile, anyone remember how many billions have been spent on a missile shield that has never had a successful real-world test?

Oh, and let's not forget the Coast Guard either. Attempts to give them a new fleet of cutters have yielded ships that can't stay at sea very long and tend to crack in the middle.

The Pentagon is a very efficient operation for burning through tons of money in a way that makes contractors and congress critters happy, but doesn't really have a lot to do with real world military challenges and rational budgets. A lot of officers have gotten promotions by keeping it going though.

IF the Democrats had any smarts, they'd stop worrying about seen as soft on defense and start pounding the Republicans for being STUPID on defense. Bush and his toadies have treated the military like a throw-away toy; fixing the mess is going to be neither cheap nor quick. If the Democrats don't start making the point now, come 2008 the Republicans will start talking about how the Democrats destroyed the military again. - and they'll get away with it.

Xaxnar, I salute you. And you know, it is surprising to me that I hadn't thought of this before. Given the many horrible military acquisition issues have gone on in the past seven years, exactly how are we supposed to let the Republicans hold the title as the "responsible" political party for national defense? Not one Democratic candidate can say anything about the defense program without saying "Iraq." Why not immolate them with the lack of legislative oversight that has resulted in grounded Air Force planes, cracked Coast Guard ships, and bloated, runaway Future Combat System and Enhanced Fighting Vehicle programs? When exactly will the Defense Department finally get its books in order? Maybe then SecDef Gates wouldn't be able to get away with the ridiculous statement about laying off government civilians and defense agencies.