Representative Barney Frank has been in Congress a very long time; in fact, nearly thirty years.  Though I could pull out the old saw of "unfortunately for the United States military, he never served," that has little bearing on the issue--save for a little more familiarity with how the military operates, or how badly we need our equipment.  Fortunately, Representative Frank was old enough to remember when the first KC-135E entered the fleet:  At the time, Representative Frank was 20 years old, and not due to run for Congress for nearly twenty more.

    Since that aircraft was put into service, we have walked on the moon, toppled communism, been attacked on our home soil, gotten involved in two Gulf wars, a Korean war, a war in Vietnam, and countless other conflicts.  Fifty years later, we are still flying them, even as we watch China and Russia recapitalize their military assets.  By the time we retire this aircraft--which is already well past its prime--it will be nearly 90 years old.  Let's look at that from the other direction:  90 years before this plane was put into service, there was no powered flight.  In fact, there was no Model-T yet.

-       AF is facing a crisis.  It’s aircraft average 25 years of age.  In 1972 the average age was 8 years.

-       Airplanes are literally falling out of the sky.  In the past 12 months 450 F-15s, 450 T-38s, 21 KC-135Es, and 20 B-2s have been grounded.

-       Presently, 140 A-10s are grounded and about 14% of the fleet is restricted in one way or other.

-       The oldest aircraft in the inventory is the KC-135E which averages 50 years old – and is eligible to join AARP

-       When the last KC-135 retires, it will be close to 90 years old – which is like taking the Wright Flyer into Desert Storm

o       In fact, the last KC-135 pilot has not yet been born
o       Heck --- the mother of the last KC-135 pilot has not been born

-       Space assets are all past their design life
o       The AF actually has satellites up that are old enough to vote

o       Come to think of it there are some that are old enough to drink
o       The GPS system has 14 of the 30 bird constellation which are within one component of failure
*       Think of the impact of that system going down … through plain neglect

-       ICBM force will be 50 years old … before a program is even started to replace them

-       Even the B-2 is almost 20 years old

-       Think about the systems that have been retired recently – F-117s, MH-53 (with nothing to replace it)

-       The AF’s FYDP shows they plan to buy 125 aircraft per year for the next 6 years.  This means they are on a replacement schedule of over 45 years.

o       However, it you look at it closer, only 80 aircraft per year are replacement A/C – the rest are UAVs (drones) – which means a replacement rate of over 70 years

o       CSAF has said he needs about 200 aircraft per year to make a modest reduction in average aircraft age.
o       The AF needs about $20B extra per year for the next few years
o       The Nation can afford it – we are spending only 3.2% of our GDP on Defense – a record low amount
*       Recall that we spent 37% on Defense in WWII, 14% in Korea, 9 % in Viet Nam, and 6% at the height of the Reagan build-up

*       The words of the Constitution are relevant here – “Provide for the common defense” vs “Promote the general welfare"

*       Defense should be JOB ONE for the government.  Without it, we don’t have freedom.
*       We should not ask our children and grandchildren to protect us with equipment that will not provide them with the opportunity to survive … and succeed