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Editorial: Be upfront on airlift needs

Everyone agrees the military could use more airlift.

The question is how to get it — modernize the huge but aging C-5 Galaxies, or buy more C-17s?

Air Force leaders have waffled on this issue for too long. A little more transparency would help.

The service has used a 2005 mobility capabilities study to justify its policy decisions, but details of that report have not been publicly released.

According to legislative aides, it concluded the Air Force could meet airlift needs with 180 C-17s and a 111-plane C-5 fleet that had a 75 percent mission-capable rate.

Since the report came out, the number of C-17s has climbed from 180 to 190, but the mission-capable rate for the C-5 fleet is just 49 percent for C-5As and 66 percent for C-5Bs.

Although Air Force officials insist they don’t need more C-17s, they occasionally hint that more wouldn’t hurt.

Congress obliged by approving 10 more C-17s in the 2007 Defense Authorization Act, which boosted the fleet to 190 aircraft.

Meanwhile, the Air Force moves forward with a lengthy and expensive C-5 modernization program in which it will upgrade the avionics systems and re-engine at least half of the 111-plane fleet, perhaps all.

Earlier this year, however, Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael Wynne told Congress that 30 of the older “A” models are too far gone to be upgraded and should be retired.

Frustrated with the mixed messages, the Senate, in its version of the 2008 defense authorization bill, asks for an independent study to determine the amount of airlift needed to meet current and future operational needs, including the mobility requirements generated by 92,000 additional soldiers and Marines and the Army’s Future Combat Systems.

That study may conclude the Air Force needs both more C-17s and upgraded C-5s.

At the very least, everyone should be singing from the same page. Congress should pass the amendment, and when the report becomes available, its conclusions should be made public.