By Ann Roosevelt
The next administration must invest in defense for a full spectrum military or “risk falling behind other global powers,” according to a new report from the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
AIA has looked at the macro issues, advocating adequate, predictable and stable defense funding, spending at least 4 percent Gross National Product on defense, and recommended increasing procurement funds to a steady-state range of about $120 billion to $150 billion a year. These issues were aired in a spring defense modernization report aimed at presidential candidates and staff (Defense Daily, April 21).
Now AIA delves deeper into specifics.
For the new president, “money will be his constant headache,” Fred Downey, AIA vice president, National Security, said while introducing the report, “Defense Modernization: Today’s Choices for Tomorrow’s Readiness.”
Military equipment, particularly aerospace equipment, needs to be recapitalized and modernized, he said. AIA does not advocate systems. Rather, it talks about capability areas. Thus, it does not examine the merits of the current Air Force tanker competition, but discusses the need for flexible and responsive global air mobility for successful military operations.
The one thing the new president and defense team will not have is the luxury of time, Downey said, with a confluence of budget decisions coming soon after the inauguration.
The new defense team must finish the fiscal year 2009 budget, decide on the FY ’10 budget, do a Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and the FY ’11 budget–all by the end of 2009, Downey said.
It’s not all about the money; it is about making the whole system more efficient, Jeremiah Gertler, AIA assistant vice president, defense policy said.
“The next administration has to do the QDR, deciding what kind of wars we need to be prepared for in the future,” he said. “This report basically says that you can’t choose today one kind of conflict, you need to be ready for the full spectrum of conflict.”
The report offers specific recommendations and cost implications for nine capability areas plus logistics and science and technology activities.
“In most areas, we advocate continued and enhanced R&D spending particularly on prototype systems–X-craft,” Gertler said. “The kind of development and research work that keeps an industrial base and designers working and looking for the next system.”
The report also addresses what happens if the new defense team fails to address some of these areas.
“For example, and it’s most vivid in the rotorcraft industry, where there is not a single new design rotorcraft in the Defense Department budget and, in fact, after 2018, there’s no rotorcraft at all,” Gertler said.
Rotorcraft has a specialized industrial base, and without work to do, a conscious policy choice has to be made that someone else is going to do it.
The sections are not all about money, Gertler said. One rotorcraft recommendation is that the Office of the Secretary of Defense create a joint office at that level to lead rotorcraft development.
The main thrust of the paper starts with the financial problem, goes into the needed capability in each area and comes out with common themes such as R&D. In almost every area, it deals with aging platforms and the industrial base effects of the decisions made by the next administration.
J.P. Stevens, AIA vice president, space systems, said there’s a need to modernize aging systems faced with increased demand. There needs to be a national security priority placed on addressing the emerging threats to U.S. space systems, and secondly maintaining the technological advantages.
This new report aims at campaign transition teams and new defense office holders. AIA officials and CEOs of member companies expect to sit down with campaign personnel Sept. 17 to discuss the report.