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Air Force is trying too hard to be Army

The argument that we should abolish the Air Force has come up often since Robert Farley proposed the idea in a November 2007 American Prospect column.

I’m beginning to think Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz took Farley’s argument seriously.

The Air Force’s leaders seem to believe the path to acceptance is to pretend they’re the Army. This self-inflicted identity crisis is nowhere more obvious than with the MC-12W Project Liberty reconnaissance aircraft.

The MC-12W is a reasonable program to gather tactical intelligence. It’s not a big deal, no matter how hard Air Force leaders try to make it sound like one.

But it should be an Army-only program. The Army has decades of experience operating Beech L-23, U-8, U-21, and C-12 aircraft in tactical reconnaissance programs.

The Army operates, or has operated, at least nine reconnaissance versions of the C-12. In contrast, the Air Force has zero experience using the C-12 for anything other than taxicab duty.

In fact, some critics say the Air Force never should have considered the MC-12 to carry the cameras and eavesdropping sensors normally placed on unmanned aircraft. Instead, they say, the Air Force should have fixed the shortage of Predators rather than create a new fleet of aircraft.

This debate is far from over, especially because Project Liberty has fallen so far behind schedule that only half of the aircraft scheduled to be in theater by the end of the summer will be there.

When the first MC-12W reached Iraq in early June, regional air commander Lt. Gen. Gary North praised the troops who helped make it happen. What these airmen achieved, North said, was “nothing short of miraculous.”

North was right to praise service members who fielded the MC-12W. They did a good job, even if they were given the wrong job to do, and even if it was exceedingly modest in scale. But can ordinary completion of a routine task be called miraculous?

When the MC-12W made its first combat mission from Balad, Iraq, on June 10, it was two months behind schedule.

Pentagon insiders say Defense Secretary Robert Gates was riled about the delay.

It’s good for all of us that the MC-12W is on duty, but casting this as an Air Force priority, or even as an Air Force mission, was a mistake.

Project Liberty is a distraction from the big issues confronting the big Air Force — the world of F-22 Raptors, C-17 Globemaster IIIs, the Next Generation Bomber and a combat rescue helicopter.

The Air Force must stop trying to be the Army. It should give the MC-12W to the Army. It should return the C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft to the Army, which has a legitimate need for JCA while the Air Force can’t find a mission for the plane.

Similarly, the Air Force should get out of the business of Joint Expedition Tasking or JET, formerly called “in lieu of” tasking, and tell the Army to find its own riflemen.

I don’t want the Air Force to become part of the Army or even to act like the Army. I want my Air Force to have fighters, bombers, airlifters, tankers and combat search-and-rescue platforms.

If Donley and Schwartz want to run the Army, they should change jobs. I want leaders who will stand up for a robust Air Force that can wield long-range, land-based strategic air power.

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Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. Dorr is co-author “Hell Hawks,” a history of an American fighter group in World War II. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net.