Center for a New American Security

How do you defeat an enemy that hides among the innocent?

Apparently you defeat them by partying hard with the VIPs in your sound proof luxury capsule. At least that must be the theory behind the development of the Senior Leader in-Transit Comfort Conference Capsule (good thing they changed the name...wouldn't want this to look like a foolish use of American taxpayer money)


While Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen going to and from theater watched the same in-flight movie for the last two years (oh I hate you Wild Hogs) on 1970s-era commercial charters and Kip's team spent the majority of their tour traveling dangerous roads without the benefit of armor, the Air Force spent over $300,000 in Global War on Terrorism money to develop an even better luxury trailer for senior leader transit (a decision it says it now will reverse). The total cost of the project will be at least $4.4 million according to an open letter sent to Secretary Gates by the non-partisan Project on Government Oversight.

Key concerns of the senior leadership included the length of the seat lamps, the color of the leather (from brown to blue for an additional cost of just over $100,000), and whether the module would be "world class." (see the personal emails and forms from senior leaders in POGO's appendices, truly petty stuff).

It's great to see that the Air Force is keeping the enemy down by aiming high when it comes to senior leaders' comfort.

(here is another editorial on the subject)

Sec. Gates really slapped down the U.S. Air Force today:

Although he praised the U.S. Air Force's contributions to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the defense chief made it clear that more needs to be done. A case in point, he said, is the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, as the pilotless drones are known. When he was director of the CIA in 1992, Gates recalled, "the Air Force would not co-fund with CIA a vehicle without a pilot," even though it was a "far less risky and far more versatile means of gathering data."

Saying that drones cost much less and can spend more time in the air than piloted planes, Gates called UAVs "ideal for many of today's tasks" and noted that the United States now has more than 5,000 of them, a 25-fold increase since 2001.

"But in my view, we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt," Gates said. "My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield. I've been wrestling for months to get more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets into the theater. Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it's been like pulling teeth."

Abu Muqawama usually jumps at any opportunity to pile on the boys in blue suits, but today he's a little more mellow because he was reading through an article Terry Terriff wrote on U.S. Marine Corps culture an hour or so ago. Terriff writes that “overcoming a deeply rooted, persistent cultural characteristic is neither simple nor easy.”

And that's why Sec. Gates is having so much trouble with the USAF right now. Unmanned aircraft (the strong emphasis being placed on that first word) go against the constitutive norms of the USAF in the same way that an adviser corps runs contrary to the constitutive norms of the U.S. Army. And while Sec. Gates may have some luck in the end, it will only be because he a) finds a way to get congressmen and defense contractors in on the game or b) somehow manages to change the way the USAF officer corps sees itself as a profession. Needless to say, he'll probably have more luck with the former.

Update: The updated article from the Washington Post now portrays the speech as having been more a criticism of the services (plural) than just the Air Force. Reader Pete's first-hand report states this was also the case. You can read the actual speech here. Abu Muqawama likes reading the Q&A sessions at the end of his speeches. Gates is so much more humble -- and thus, likable -- than his predecessor.

David Axe over at Danger Room has passed judgment on the new FM 3-0 and manages to get in a few choice digs at the U.S. Air Force.

For a brief moment, Kip thought the Air Force had made a turn around, a brief nod to civilian control, a nod to warfare in the 21ST Century.

How wrong I was...

Remember, ladies and gents, it's a zero sum game.