By Emelie Rutherford
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this week he intends to stick with plans hashed out last year to maintain a full 76 of the Air Force’s B-52 bombers, a welcome decision on Capitol Hill.
The 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) called for dipping down to 56 B-52s; yet the Air Force reassessed those plans last year, and lawmakers mandated in a report on the fiscal year 2009 defense authorization act that funding remain in future years’ budgets to maintain a 76-bomber fleet.
Gates told officers at the Air War College at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Ala., Wednesday that there are “a lot of decisions that I made that I haven’t talked about publicly” regarding Pentagon programs, including the venerable Stratofortress bomber.
“For example, I decided not to make any change in the 76 deployed B-52s,” he said. “That force will remain.”
Gates unveiled last week his recommendations to the Obama administration for rejiggering funding in fiscal year 2010 defense budget and for deferring decisions on the fate of some programs, including the classified next-generation bomber, to the forthcoming QDR.
The 2006 QDR recommended reducing the B-52 force from more than 90 down to 56 bombers, to help pay for upgrades to remaining B-52s, B-1s and B-2s. Congress opposed dropping to a fleet of fewer than 76 B-52s, despite Air Force requests.
Air Force leaders then revealed last year that service support was increasing to maintain a 76-bomber fleet; the Air Force’s decision to task part of the B-52 force for a nuclear role, after highly publicized nuclear surety mishaps, has been one of the reasons cited.
Gates was asked Wednesday at the Air War College about how plans for buying F-35 Joint Strike Fighters jibe with the B-2 and B-52 bombers. He was quizzed, by an audience member who cited the “strategic imperative” of nuclear deterrents and conventional power projection, on whether more long-range persistent strike assets should be purchased and the number of F-35s pared.
“This is one of the questions that I have that I think that the Quadrennial Defense Review has to address,” Gates said.
“The question is, depending on where post-START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty arms-control negotiation) ends up, if we go down significantly in the number of nuclear weapons that we have deployed, the question is whether the traditional triad makes sense anymore and I think we have to address that,” he said.
The current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and Russia expires in December.
Gates added: “Also, when you’re looking for a long-range persistent capability, maybe a manned bomber isn’t the answer. An F-16 (jet fighter) has a range of about 500 nautical miles. (The) Reaper (unmanned aerial vehicle) has a range of 3,000 miles, it has a long-dwell capability, and as you all know, we can load them up with weapons. So I think these are the kinds of issues that we have to look at in the QDR as we look forward to a very different environment than we had during the Cold War.”