On Monday, Reuters reported that Arizona Senator John McCain said he was concerned about the “cronyism” behind the development of Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 fighter jet, and said the $398.6 billion program still had “major problems.”
According to Reuters, McCain claimed to be “disturbed” by the Pentagon’s decisions which he found “troubling” and cited a payment of 85-percent or higher award fees to Lockheed on the F-35 program despite cost increases and schedule delays.
Reuter reports,”Former Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter last month said the Pentagon’s F-35 program manager told him he had kept the fees high because he liked the Lockheed executive in charge, and the company official had said he would be fired if the fees fell below 85 percent.”
Last week, Lt. Col. (retired) Tom Norris appeared on the James T. Harris radio show to discuss the latest House Appropriations vote, in which funding for the Air Force’s A-10 was denied and supporters plans to win back funding on the Senate side in the next few weeks.
The House failed to fund the A-10 on the same day that a B-1 Bomber killed five U.S. Special Forces while it was attempting to provide Close Air Support (CAS) for those forces. Prior to the vote, the Air Force had repeatedly made false claims that the B-1 Bomber and the F-16 could replace the A-10 for CAS.
The House vote came as a surprise to nearly everyone due to the wide-spread support for the A-10 from the troops on the ground and the public.
Lt. Col. Norris, a legend in the Air Force community and staunch advocate for the boots on the ground, discussed the House vote and recent claims made by some that saving the A-10 could cost the residents of Tucson the Davis Monthan Air Force base. Harris, of 104.1FM KQTH in Tucson, was the first to break the national news last August that the Air Force had planned to mothball the low and slow flying aircraft.
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Air Force Slide Show on A-10 Capabilities
Norris told Harris, that the House added “insult to injury when they essentially told the service men, ‘we’re sorry but we just don’t have the money to be responsible. But oh by the way we are going to add 4 F-35’s that the Department of Defense DID NOT wanted and some F-18 Growlers that they didn’t want either’ at the cost of way more than the A-10s would cost.”
Norris explained that while the City of Tucson leaders have been AWOL in the effort to save the A-10 and its home Davis Monthan, “we do owe accolades to Sen. John McCain. He is stepped up. In regards to Jeff Flake, we haven’t heard anything from him. We haven’t heard anything from his office. So I don’t know where that all dynamic is in regards to where the City leaders are, and what they believe in.”
“But how they can help, is that they can contact Senate Appropriation leaders, call their senators and demand that they fund the A-10. At the end of the day, it is all about what the grassroots want.”
And the grassroots have received confusing instructions from competing interests.
Former failed State Senator Frank Antenori, who is working overtime to remain relevant in the political arena, wrote a column in a blog advising his small group of supporters that saving the A-10 could hurt the chances of keeping the base open.
Antenori, a former member of the Army’s Special Forces, dismissed support for the A-10 as primarily a result of emotion and claimed that the supporters weakens the chances of us securing new missions for Davis Monthan. Norris said, “You know I thank Frank for his service and I respect Frank, but you know I am emotional about this issue because I care about the troops on the ground. That is my only concern.”
Norris, who has fought tirelessly on the Hill for the A-10 continued, “If you want to call it me lobbyist, the only thing I am lobbying for is our troops on the ground. If we have an aircraft better than the A-10 for the troops, then so be it, but the fact of the matter is, according to those troops, we don’t. So where is Frank going, I don’t know. Let’s talk about the missions.”
“The A-10 showed up at Davis Monthan in 1976. Let’s talk about all the missions that have come to DM since the A- 10 arrived. GLCM, two squadrons of EC-130’s, and an entire rescue group consisting of helicopters, C130J’s, and rescue Airmen, Air National Guard UAV’s, 12th Air Force headquarters, and the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) ALL came after the A-10 arrived.” Norris concluded, “So to say if the A-10 stays you’re not going to get other missions just doesn’t make any sense, there is no basis of logic for that.”
Harris asked Norris about Antenori’s claim that supporters of the A-10 are going to make the Air Force mad and jeopardize future Davis Monthan missions. “You know the last time I checked, we want civilian leadership that provides oversight and questions our military leaders. Senator McCain has been punching the Air Force in the nose like you READ about lo and behold the next thing I know Luke Air Force Base has is expanding to the F 35. Senator Ayotte, who has been very respectful and holding the Air Force accountable. Look who is getting the KC-46? The first base to get the KC-46 is Portsmouth, New Hampshire where Senator Ayotte is a senator. So to say that we don’t want to hurt their feelings, we don’t want to make them mad? Hey this is a passionate subject those men and women, those sons and daughters on the ground; they are not expendable. They are worth every bit of passion and we’re going to keep bringing it. This fight is far from over,” vowed Norris.
Harris asked Norris about the Predator, which Antenori, who is employed by Raytheon, which sells weapons that the UAVs use, claimed could be a replacement for the A-10. “We have a ton of them right now and hey, by the way, the Air Force has published force structure and UAV’s,” responded Norris. “They’re drawing down because we are pulling out of Afghanistan they’re drawing down the number of orbits and they’re putting MQ-1’s in retirement. The only UAVs that were going to have going forward are a small number of MQ1’s and MQ9s.”
“You’re only about five years behind the power curve. You got to get out in front of this stuff by going to your senators, to your representatives and gaining base support. Help us figure this out. Identify the strengths of DM; Barry Goldwater Range, great weather, and capacity for expansion at DM. Then you go to Congress and you lobby and look for those new missions and you fight for those missions, and you explore how your strengths suit these missions. Not thinking about the past, not thinking about the impossible; like the KC-46, where those bases have already been defined. You’re five years behind the power curve. You’ve got to get out in front and to do that, you have to be educated and you’re not going to get educated in Tucson. You have to go to DC.”
Lastly, Harris mentioned what he called the most “egregious claims” Antenori made; the fight for the A-10 could hurt DM’s chances of survival. How does fighting for the A-10 hurt Davis Monthan? How does fighting for the Close Air Support for our troops hurt Davis Monthan?” asked Harris. “I don’t think there is any logic in that statement whatsoever,” replied Norris. “It’s not based on history and it’s certainly not based on watching 3000 direct and probably three times that in indirect jobs walk out the gate in the next twelve months as all this draw down starts to occur with no replacement mission. You just can’t follow the logic train. And anybody that says these kinds of things; prove it. Give some kind of historical basis, provides some mathematical balance sheet, whatever you want to do. Just making blanket statements with no facts to back it up; I don’t get how they can do that.”
In a commentary by Pierre Sprey and Winslow Wheeler of the website, War is Boring, describe the House Appropriations Committee vote as having been conducted “in a manner to hold Members unaccountable, to deny funding for retaining the A-10.” Wheeler notes that they added at least $1.6 billion for preferred hardware programs, but “the committee could find nothing to support the A-10, and it did so when the morning headlines were revealing the death of five American soldiers in another friendly-fire tragedy—this one carried to fruition by a B-1B bomber. The committee studiously avoided the hypocrisy of its funding numerous big ticket hardware goodies and declaring itself poverty-stricken for the A-10, and it also demonstrated its own purposeful obliviousness to unfolding events directly relevant to the debate at hand—the then-available Washington Post and Fox News revelations that the friendly fire event had occurred and that a B-1B was responsible.”
To hear James T. Harris and Lt. Col. Tom Norris visit http://media.jrn.com/audio/LT+COL+RETIRED+THOMAS+NORRIS+GIVES+AN+A-10+SMACKDOWN+JTH+6-13-14.mp3
Find Wheeler’s commentary at https://medium.com/@warisboring/congressional-committee-just-voted-to-kill-the-a-10-and-endanger-troops-lives-4f8dcef540a0.