Comments on: QDR: It’s Over, Barring Surprises

By: william j folk

william j folk — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:15:05 +0000

As someone who ran a 6 man Recon team, and had to call in 250 and 500 pounders as far away as I could throw a smoke grenade thru heavy jungle, I say all services in combat should have their own close ground fixed wing air support. If you’ve ever had to throw dead enemy out of a hole and squeeze 6 men in a place build for 2 skinny NVA you’d know what I mean.

By: wtpworrier

wtpworrier — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:47:48 +0000

If nothing else, this writer have at least studied his acronyms. Lets see, you got the OMB, the DAWG, the FCS and the QDR and POMs, all the is connected to the DoD which is connected to the head bone the hipp bone is.…no wait, thats a song I learned as a KID. Writing is simple, bottom line up front, anything beyond that, you’re just wasting time. And I’am no pro.

By: Gulliver

Gulliver — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:08:40 +0000

probably rescuing Jessica Lynch

True — it was the 3rd Light Armored Reconaissance Bn.

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:06:11 +0000

“What was the MEF doing while 3 ID fought through Iraq and took Baghdad?”

Screening the right flank and probably rescuing Jessica Lynch

By: Trophy

Trophy — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:23:46 +0000

Peter03292006, during WWII the Army Air Corps was essentially it’s own branch of service at the time. It ran with near-complete autonomy from the Army, and even had it’s own representative at General Staff meetings when an air arm created in the Department of War (now the Department of Defense).

It only made sense to re-establish the Army Air Corps into an official separate branch known as the Air Force today.

By: Cole

Cole — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:07:15 +0000

Mark didn’t like General Petraeus’ joke at the Marine Banquet. ;)

You know…General Petraeus…the leader who has been in theater 6 or 7 years, and was shot in the back accidentally by one of his troops when he was a battalion commander and nearly died.

He punished that Soldier by enhancing his career and sending him to Ranger school.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:13:19 +0000

Is there anything of any substance or even high school level seriousness or just one of the beter collections of sophmoric rubbish seen on this site. Semper Fi hyperbole (as if we need more of that?)and ground centric luddites…you could at the least be entertaining and witty if you insist on sounding inane to the point of nausea.

By: Peter03292006

Peter03292006 — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:48:23 +0000

Jeff, concur: Also would be a cost savings. For the Air Force now has what they call Space Command in CO. Peterson AFB.

By: Jeff Razer

Jeff Razer — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:26:15 +0000

To be fair, the Army Air Corp is what eventually became the Air Force. It wasn’t spun off into its own branch until 1947.

But yes, I would be happy to see a new Army Air Corp created. No air superiority craft, just put Army support. Essentially fixed wing equivilents to the rotor-based craft the Army uses today.

Maybe I have my head full of sunshine here, but I think the Army would be a much better job procuring a ground support plane than the Air Force can. Not a knock on the Air Force, I’m just saying that they look at everything from the air.

By: Peter03292006

Peter03292006 — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:27:25 +0000

I have a queation. Did we or did we not win WWII with the use of the Army Air Corp?

By: maryam,choufani

maryam,choufani — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:39:25 +0000

As the wiseman said:Competition is fine but,Why we do not want to respect that each of us can do certain things with respect,yes Airmen are traind for space or Navy to protect the sea and Millitary the ground.As simple as is equal= Budgeting,We will see who achives at best is nothing wrong to try it now!With respect to all service men&service women Truely yours,Maryam

By: dave

dave — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:29:18 +0000

If UAVs have a low logistical footprint and can be operated by an 18 year old kid efficiently and correctly, why not?

That being said, there needs to be one DoD OPR responsible for oversight on UAVs. Otherwise you’ll end up with the same problem the services have with automated test equipment — billions of dollars of obsolete equipment with duplicate functions out the kazoo.

By: longrifle

longrifle — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:43:32 +0000

MAGTFs (Marine Air-Ground Task Forces) will be around as long as our Nation requires a Maritime forced-entry capability.
“The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.”
James Forrestal – Secretary of the Navy – 23rd February 1945. ARUGAH & Semper Fi!

By: Jeff Razer

Jeff Razer — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:38:31 +0000

Instead of roles, I think the armed forces should focus on zones of control. The Navy controls the sea and the coast. If they need planes to control the sea, so be it. The air force controls the skies. The army controls the ground. If the army needs planes for CAS, let them have planes.

The Air Force likes to focus on its core compentencies: air superiority and dropping bombs. They have a habit of resists/killing off programs that are dedicated to CAS. Killing the Warthog because you feel the F-16 is just fine for CAS? That’s the mind of an air jockey, not of an infantryman.

Maybe then these projects would stay on track. The Army should be able to follow and design a perfectly dedicated CAS plane without loading it with air-to-air, stealth, phase radar arrays, etc… cheaper planes that are better at their designated job. And it lets the Air Force forget about CAS and concentrate on shooting stuff down and putting PGMs down stove-pipes. Sounds like a win-win.

By: Gulliver

Gulliver — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:23:18 +0000

Bill R. -- Krepenevich will be so unhappy – no more programs to be sacrificed for the great COIN idol…guess that Foreign Affairs article didn’t get into the QDR, huh ?Think again.

By: Bill R.

Bill R. — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:15:58 +0000

Krepenevich will be so unhappy — no more programs to be sacrificed for the great COIN idol…guess that Foreign Affairs article didn’t get into the QDR, huh ? It is so very nice that the Marines got to keep their toys, while FCS money went to shipbuilding. From a power projection point of view, doesn’t make a rats rear end of difference in land-locked Afghanistan. The more disturbing trend is to see the Army trying to transform itself into the Marine Corps — so the eternal propaganda is having that much of an effect. Hell, why not just make everyone an infantryman, and do away with everything else ?

By: Tony Conner

Tony Conner — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:55:01 +0000

The Marines are needed to supplement the Army in the Stan (or are they still there alone)? The Marines are the boots on the ground in a Naval assault, there are still many places that the front door is the ocean. When you need to kick in the front door, you send the Marines.
I spent 8 years in the Navy, so I had to deal with the Marines quite abit. They have the right attitude for combat, every man is a rifle man first.

By: JR

JR — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:25:34 +0000

I can’t imagine the USMC without amphibious operations as one of their core competencies.

Oh and speaking of competency, the sentence that begins with “The DAWG is comprised of…” is grammatically incorrect. The preposition “of” should never follow any derivation of the word comprise. Tsk, tsk.

By: Karl Lehn

Karl Lehn — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:38:18 +0000

Of course this means Air Force pilots will have to become carrier qualified and operate of carriers on extended forward deployments like Navy and Marine pilots do.
Also Army personnel will sail on Navy ships like the Brits do.

By: Edward Cox

Edward Cox — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:35:51 +0000

The problem with all the services is that they don’t seem to to realize the other services are there to support them. If the Army needs Air why isn’t the Air Force providing it. Why kill the Warthog when it was a perfect close air support weapon?

Why isn’t the Air Force capable of moving all of the Armor we got and if it isn’t why not? If UAV’s are so important on a tacticial battle field why isn’t the Air Force flying a super mother drone up high and have a fleet of micro’s cheap and disposable down low. Why does the Army and MArine corps need to train their troops to fly UAV’s. All this treading on each other xxxxx comes about when one service fails to support the other. We need a professional capabilities integrator to straighten this out and narrow track the serivce into their respective domains and make damn sure no support need goes unfulfilled.