"Help Needed: US Air Force at Smallest Level Since WWII" Topic

"The US Air Force is seeing its lowest numbers since the World War II era. It's also the smallest in terms of manpower that the USAF been since 1947, when it first became an independent and separate branch of US military service.

The US Air Force (USAF) currently has some 54 fighter squadrons. During Operation Desert Shield in 1990 there were 188. There are a little over 317,000 active duty airmen today, a considerable decrease from 511,000 in 1990. There are also 4,000 fewer maintenance service people and 3,000 fewer aircraft. These deficits have become more glaring as America's military campaigns abroad intensify…"
See here
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Amicalement
Armand

drones.

And so it should be. I'd still cut 25% of the aircraft.

A lot of their inventory is semi obsolete [against all but very weak air defenses] and only maintained in service in a pork barrel role.

Factor in drones and I'd say the USAF is actually larger and certainly more powerful than at any time in its history.

Drones however have the life expectancy of a soap herring against anyone with an air force…

I think the USAF has to be able to do all it's missions. And having air superiority is critical if an enemy has any sort of air force themselves. Since WWII, it has shown that air superiority is critical for conducting any type of operations.

And yes more drones/UCAVs will be used in any type conflict. But the USAF also has airlift duties, CAS and even responsible for space ops, IIRC.

But like all governmental functions, funding needs to be more circumspect and assets used more effectively. However, as has been frequently noted. Trying to get the massive bureaucratic monster of a large ungainly national government is almost impossible to get under positive control. Like trying to herd cats …

As long as that soap herring shoots off it's own missiles first…

We've started flying drone escort missions in some theaters, so they're a bit more survivable than would generally appear.

Of course, we need dogfight capable drones, even if not for offensive purposes, to at least let them evade and escape.

What is troubling is 70% of the USMC's air being unserviceable.

If the USAF and USN are anything near that, we're in trouble in an increasingly hostile world where we're dependent upon using these high-tech assets to bomb stone-age combatants. They need to find a cheaper way to do that, to preserve very limited airframe hours on our best aircraft.

This is the price of spending so prolifically on such expensive aircraft as have been bought in the last thirty years. You have bankrupted yourselves with run-away military spending during peacetime and have little to show for it. It's time to accept responsibility for wasting so much money and enriching so many military contractors along the way. You cannot afford a wartime military in peacetime and you are bankrupting your country and your citizens by attempting to do so. A post Cold War reality check is needed before it's too late to save the American economy. The emperor has no clothes. The military-industrial-complex has wrecked the ship of state on shoals of debt and usurious interest. The ship's coffers are bare and the rusting hulk itself is leveraged in debt. You're done.

Rod Robertson

Thanks for preaching Rod!

Haven't read entertainment like that since being handed pamphlets by the American communist party while walking to class as a Berkeley undergrad! Still amusing.

cwlinsj:

O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane! – (Lucilius)

Pecuniae obediunt omnia!

Pax Vobiscum!

Cheers.
Rod Robertson.

It's all fun and games until all of a sudden aircraft are needed in an emergency. Then the finger pointing begins …

Actually, perhaps we need to revamp our military-industrial complex, and the space program too, since empirical evidence seems to indicate that only after those jobs were cut did we start going downhill.

In order to reverse that, we need to ramp up our domestic spending on home-grown produced weaponry and exploration craft.

The results of many economic booms during and after a number of wars seem to confirm that notion.

Actually, perhaps we need to revamp our military-industrial complex, and the space program too,

That would be an option. But you'd be stepping on a lot of toes to do that. And many won't stand for that. And they have the $$$$ to "support" their own interests.

Unfortunately Rod is quite correct. We are paying huge sums of money to keep defence industry in business. The costs that the tax payer is presented with are somewhat nefarious. Paying the contractor costs to borrow money they need to spend to deliver the project back which are then charged back. The amount of risk money factored in which is then retained by the contractor and profit made on such risk totals. Percentage profit made in excess of inflation by 300%. The list goes on and on. And unfortunately naval and aerospace and the most expensive to the nation.

"No Bucks … No Buck Rogers !"

O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane! – (Lucilius)

Pecuniae obediunt omnia!

Pax Vobiscum!

Rod … many of use don't speak Latin … You want me to start posting my replies in Klingon ?!?

"Qapla'! "

But…he is correct, money is the answer to everything, in a capitalist society. Sooner rather than later we are going to contractorise the military as it will be the only way we can afford industry's equipment…..there was an algorithm a few years ago which showed when that was likely to be But I can't remember it's name.

The cost of high-tech modern aircraft like the F-35 has made force levels of the past unachievable, even when we account for inflation and the declining buying power of the dollar.

The question then becomes: "Is having one new plane costing X times more than an older plane better than having X number of the older plane instead?"

I think the Germans learned the answer to that question was no in WWII. Unfortunately, neither have we since then.

The US has 54 fighter squadrons. How many other fighter squadrons are there in the rest of the world that contain aircraft that are post-cold-war designs? Squadrons with Mig-21's, Mirage's and F-5's should not really count.

If those aircraft are not made by the West check out how many sorties they could be expected to make in sustained combat operations. Even air superiority is a combined arms operation, not a series of dogfight scenarios. If the US did find itself on the short end of air-air combat to obtain air superiority it has many other options and capabilities. War games people play do not reflect reality.

Personally, I would not worry about it. Another post by Tango to increase web traffic.

I've been following Rod's posts for awhile. I'm surprised someone from the current US administration has not nominated him to be a DoD political appointee.

Wolfhag

Legio IV doesn't read Latin!?! For shame, sir! Those who have severed their past drift aimlessly into the future. But, Legion 4, there now exists a marvelous magical thing called the internet, where one can type in arcane phrases from the past and have their meaning revealed within seconds! You should try it! My choice to write in Latin (which in the spirit of full disclosure and humility, I suck at) was the result of being accused of preaching, which I was doing.

The USA is all but bankrupt, as are many other states which have used rampant deficit financing over the past 70 or so years. The cost of servicing the debts created by this spending is huge despite record low interest rates and amounts to between 20-30% of government spending per annum in most western countries. What is needed is a War on Debt to pay down this debt in a rational and strategic way and only then begin to plan for a sustainable peace-time procurement plan for military equipment and expenditures.

Cheers.
Rod Robertson.

Rod,
You are a common sense financial manager. I can't argue with your advice. However, your advice really concerns us little people, not countries that can print their own money and artificially create a demand for it.

Ask yourself, "How broke is a country that can print $500 USD billion of fiat currency every year and artificially create a worldwide demand for it?"

You need to take your investment advice to the top countries in the world investing billions each month in the bankrupt US:
PDF link

Canada is the 4th largest investor in the US, eh!

Maybe your Prime Minister should have a serious talk with his bromance partner Obama.

Rob, it's a whacky world out there right now, common sense and logic do not rule. It is IMPOSSIBLE for the US to pay down their debt. However, if other countries are a riskier investment than the US money will continue to flow to the US.

It may end up the world having two choices:
1- Invest your money outside of the US and get a return of -4%
2- Invest your money in the US and get a return of -2%

The US will welcome your deposits and you'll be thankful.

Wolfhag

Legio IV doesn't read Latin!?! For shame, sir! Those who have severed their past drift aimlessly into the future. But, Legion 4, there now exists a marvelous magical thing called the internet, where one can type in arcane phrases from the past and have their meaning revealed within seconds!

I have not been in Legio IV for centuries ! And this thing you speak of … "the internet" … All this new fangled "electronicy" stuff … Well … If I was around when they discovered fire … I would have voted NO …

My choice to write in Latin (which in the spirit of full disclosure and humility, I suck at) was the result of being accused of preaching, which I was doing.

The Truth Shall Set You Free !!!!!!

The USA is all but bankrupt

There is few on this planet and probably on some others … that don't know that …

Welcome Back Wolf !!!! You have missed some rip roaring, root'n toot'n discussions here between both sides of the aisle, 180 Degree polarizations, the Van Allen Belt, and all the ships at sea, etc., … With ALL the usual suspects from all corners, locations, under rocks, deserted uncharted islands and the Moon !

Wolfhag wrote:

Ask yourself, "How broke is a country that can print $500.00 USD USD billion of fiat currency every year and artificially create a worldwide demand for it?

There are many problems with this position. The first is that the US Government does not have the power to print even one dollar let alone $500 USD billion. Money is printed by the mints under the direction of the Federal Reserve and the mints can only print money if the Fed lends such money to the Federal Government. The Federal Reserve and the 12 Reserve Banks are like private corporations with some public window dressing and are beholden to their membership and their customers which are the banks and some other financial institutions who are near-members. The Governors of the Federal Reserve are appointed by the US government but the short-list of candidates is supplied by the banking system. The Fed may choose not to print money at the government's whim if that whim threatens the assets of the banking system.

Fiat money is a shared grand illusion of wealth. It is based upon two principles. The first is that each dollar represents a fraction of the GDP produced by a country. Print more dollars and the value of each dollar goes down if the GDP remains the same. This causes inflation which diminishes wealth held in dollars. This angers the 1% who hate inflation and also angers the 99% who find it more difficult to get ahead or just make ends meet because of inflation's erosion of their buying power and wealth. Too much printing of money can lead to run-away inflation, stagflation/deflation (rarely) or hyperinflation (all bad). The folks in power are much more concerned with wealth and thus preventing inflation than they are with the Armed Forces and the USAF in particular. The US could become a giant Zimbabwe if it lets its currency controls get away from it.

The mechanisms for creating artificial demand for the US greenback are waning in strength. The petro-dollar convention is unravelling, US control of global capital flows is weaker with the rise of the BRICS states and the creation of alternate financial clearing houses for international trade and commerce. Thus the ability to discipline the world to maintain the US dollar as the global currency reserve is buckling. Oz's castle is crumbling.

The second principle upon which fiat money is based is Faith. A belief that such money will hold its value in the future so that it can be used to buy goods and services down the road. Should that faith be shaken or destroyed by imprudent financial management or by strong external financial pressure then "Pop!" goes they US dollar. It is no longer a trusted store of wealth and cannot safely be used to defer purchases until the future. Alternatives are sought and a surplus of US dollars plunges the value of the US greenback. Kaput! Oz's pockets are empty and Fort Knox will not cover the bets which have been made.

The only way the Federal Government can spend more money than it has on hand (without definitely driving up inflation) is to borrow money from individuals, corporations or other sovereign states who have surplus income to invest. This could drive up inflation through competition for capital by driving up interest rates but governments still do it anyways. If those creditors decide to pull the plug and require payment of dollars lent, then the US treasury must pay those loans back. If it doesn't then the US State is in default and thus bankrupt. A bankrupt state is far weaker than a state with a weakened Air Force and thus the Air Force loses to solvency every time.

If the US decided to challenge China then China could topple the US without firing a shot. By demanding its money back when debts become due, it could cripple the US economy, undermine the faith in the US dollar and trigger a flight from the greenback that would bring down the US economy. This would hurt China badly as the US is China's biggest export market but it would hurt the US far more critically. Even if the US refused to pay back the money to China when due or froze Chinese assets, the faith would be gone, the dollar would tank and the US economy would collapse. Now imagine millions of angry and armed 99%'ers who have just lost their life's wealth. No army, no navy, and/or no Air Force is going to be able to check that angry mob. If China pulls back the curtain, the pauper Oz will be exposed once again and the party will be over. People who live in fake houses should not throw the truth around for fear of shattering the Grand Illusion.

Thus the ersatz financial stability of the USA is of far more strategic importance to the position of the USA than a bigger, more modern Air Force. No planes for you!

Cheers.
Rod Robertson.

Clarification:

The Mint stamps coins and is controlled by the Department of the Treasury while the BEP (Bureau of Engraving and Printing) prints notes and is controlled by the Federal Reserve. I was not clear above. Apologies.

Cheers.
Rod Robertson.

My daddy always says "Don't spend money that you don't have" by credit and to "live within your means."

These words have served me well.

China cannot topple the US by any action with the US debt it currently holds.

The US markets might ripple, China would be inundated. The US monetarized almost $4 USD trillion in US debt in the space of four years, China holds, last time I checked, $750 USD billion of $20 USD trillion outstanding. Holding that $750 USD to maturity and not buying more? Not even a ripple….

Dump the dollar by selling your $750 USD all at once and your home country's currency valuation rises – something China has been manipulating their currency for years (decades) to avoid.

The repercussions to China would be devastating – Can you say "Monumental Tariffs", as payback? China exists as a net exporter by necessity, as their own financial house is in disarray. Can't keep building cities and infrastructure, that no one uses, while not recognizing the non-performing nature of those debts forever…..

BRICS? Brazil – economy is turmoil, Russia – several years of declining GDP, India – not by itself, China – see above.

Fredjg:

China holds $1.32 USD trillion in treasuries and about $3.19 USD trillion in foreign exchange. That is over 20% of all US debt. The Fed couldn't burn dollar bills fast enough to maintain the value of the US dollar if China decided to dump the US currency.

Cheers.
Rod Robertson.

Rod –

Your percentage calculation doesn't work.

And China's 3.19 is foreign exchange of which the 1.32 is a part, not in addition. The remainder is in other currencies and debt holdings.

China has dumped some treasuries and $200 USD billion in stock holdings – this calendar year. The markets absorbed the sales .

As an aside, the Feds have moved $2 USD trillion of the $4. USD trillion that was monetarized which is almost double China's holdings, not much happened……