The Defense Department should reexamine its return on investment with its intelligence agency spending before it slashes spending from critical accounts, according to a former Air Force chief of staff.

Retired Air Force general and 18th chief of staff Michael Moseley said not only does DoD spend a large amount of money on the intelligence agencies, but that money can end up stovepiped as the agencies don’t interact much.

“Before we touch the investment accounts (and) before we touch the readiness accounts…how come we haven’t looked at how many intelligence communities we have in this town,” Moseley said at an Air Force Association (AFA) Mitchell Institute for airpower studies event in Arlington, Va. on Dec. 5. “How many are there? How many of those cultural tribes live out there that we’re spending a huge amount of money on, but we’re not cross pollinating any of that?”

The Pentagon has eight intelligence agencies: the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the Army Intelligence and Security Command (AI), the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency (AFISRA), Marine Corps Intelligence Activity (MCIA) and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).

The Pentagon said Oct. 31 its appropriated top line budget for the Military Intelligence Program (MIP) in fiscal year 2013 was $18.6 billion, down from $19.2 billion to be in compliance with the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011. DoD also said June 27 its FY ’14 MIP request, including both the base budget and overseas contingency operations (OCO), was also $18.6 billion. The MIP includes Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), military departments, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), DIA, NGA, NRO and NSA.

Moseley, who served as chief of staff from 2005 to 2008, said the Air Force is not 100 percent ready for combat. Moseley said this is due to sequestration-related budget cuts, a thought echoed by Air Force leadership. The Air Force, Moseley thought, was “80 percent” ready for combat and that warfighters weren’t receiving enough sorties, or practice runs, to provide combat capability.

“Can we look at ourselves today and say we are 100 percent…confident that we’re organized for combat,” Moseley said. “I’d say no.”

Moseley said if he had his way, the next Air Force dollar would go to the Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program. CRH is a potential $6.8 billion program the Air Force hopes to award a contract for in 2014. The service recently said it would go with Sikorsky, a division of United Technologies Corp. [UTX], to produce the helicopters. CRH, previously known as Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR-X), was canceled in 2009 by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“This is a mission area that is sent out over and over,” Moseley said. “For the Air Force…this is a serious, serious mission area.”

Moseley also waded into the debate of whether the Air Force should divest its A-10 fleet. The Air Force is rumored to be contemplating divesting its A-10 fleet due to reduced budgets and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), is trying to keep the A-10 fleet alive until the fifth generation F-35 arrives. While not taking a stance for or against keeping the A-10, Moseley did say people need to avoid emotional attachment to early generation aircraft.

“I think A-10 is a great airplane, but do we want to be flying the A-10 for 60 years or 70 years,” he said. “There’s a point where you have to progress into the next generation of systems that provide you with not just the capabilities, but the lethality and survivability.”