GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs, made by Boeing, await loading on an F-22 Raptor in this 2012 file photo. U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Dana Rosso
Defense One: Air Force: We’re Low on Bombs Because Congress Can’t Pass a Budget
It’s hard to persuade arms makers to boost production, even to fight ISIS, without cash on the barrelhead.
More than three years into its airstrike campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon is still struggling to replenish its bomb and missile stockpiles. Now it’s Congress’ budgetary inaction that is thwarting Air Force efforts to persuade arms makers to increase production.
“Probably the most important thing with respect to munitions is to get a budget,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Tuesday at an Air Force Association-sponsored conference in the Washington suburbs.
Wilson blamed Congress’ decision to freeze spending for the first three months of fiscal 2018 at lower 2017 levels, instead of passing a budget in time for the fiscal year to start on Oct. 1.
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WNU Editor: This is not the first time the U.S. military is complaining that they are running of bombs .... Top U.S. Admiral In The Pacific: 'We Are Running Out Of Bombs' (April 30, 2017).
6 comments:
If you consider the thousands of bombs loaded every year onto US planes, one thing should be clear: the ground team's training and performance are either excellent and/or these bombs don't go off when dropped by accident. ;)
Wilson is lying. USAF budgets prove it.
"Wilson blamed Congress’ decision to freeze spending for the first three months of fiscal 2018 at lower 2017 levels".
I.e., the Air Force has a massive budget already. It's larger than the defense budget of every country on Earth except for China. It's just that Air Force wants an even more generous budget.
'FY18 Air Force Budget Request Facts' (from 'FY2018 Air Force Budget Overview Book) shows that the entire USAF budget was 171 billion USD in the fiscal year of 2017. The 2018 request (as of June) was 182 billion USD.
For context, China spent 146 billion USD on its entire military in 2015.
Out of the 182 billion USD that the USAF wants for FY18, 39 billion is earmarked for weapons. 35.5 billion was earmarked for weapons in FY17. Just 3.5 billion out of an 182 billion budget is earmarked to increase munitions stocks. That's about 2% of the total budget.
The USAF munitions budget for FY17 was about 2%. The USAF munitions budget for FY18 is about 2%.
Like I said, Wilson is lying.
Whoops, I made a mistake in my above post! I should have mentioned that the total Chinese military budget creeps over the USAF's by a little because China keeps some spending off the official, internationally published figures.
If you just go on Chinese officially published figures, the USAF does indeed have a larger budget than the entire Chinese military.
A shortage of bombs is a good time to back away from the wars.
Here's the funny thing about wars Bob...
Sometimes, most of the time... War finds you, and when it does, backing away tends to lead to a wall.
True D. Plowman, WW I, WW II wars that found participants, but all the rest of the wars, lost and those currently being fought have had nothing to do with backing away and walls can more easily be torn down than can a bunch of wars be shut down.
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