Letter to The Honorable Michael W. Wynne, Secretary United States Air Force

Letter

Letter to The Honorable Michael W. Wynne, Secretary United States Air Force

April 11, 2007

The Honorable Michael W. Wynne
Secretary United States Air Force
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670

Dear Secretary Wynne:

At a recent Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, you told senators that implementing the Air Education and Training Command recommendation to remove four training support UH-1N helicopters from Fairchild Air Force Base may present "too much risk that we need to mitigate." As you work to restore funding to the 36th Rescue Flight (RQF), I urge you to closely consider the invaluable training the helicopter squadron provides to Air Force personnel. The 36th Rescue Flight is an important program that has been successfully integrated with the Air Force Survival School. Its primary mission is to assist the Survival School in providing specific, hands-on helicopter training to aircrews. I am concerned that without the helicopters, the 36th RQF will no longer be able to provide mission-critical instruction such as rescue hoist training, Para drop demonstrations, and combat rescue procedures.

The helicopters support Air Force Air Education and Training Command requirements approximately 70 percent of the time they are in use. In fact, of the 1,512 hours the 36th RQF logs annually, 976 hours are dedicated to training missions. Removing the helicopters will severely limit the amount and quality of training aircrews receive.

It is my understanding that the Air Education and Training Command has laid out some preliminary plans to continue training at the Survival School without the live helicopters. Under this proposal, the Course Training Standard requirement of "live" helicopter hoist training would be revised and training would be conducted using static hoists. With current infrastructure, the 36th RQF would be able to make up only 100 of the training hours currently provided by the helicopters using a hoist simulator. While the indoor hoist gives students a basic familiarization with the devices, it cannot simulate the movement, wind blast, and feeling of being pulled into a helicopter 40 feet above ground.

In addition, the Air Education and Training Command included funding requests in the fiscal year 2008 budget to replace parachute and vector training currently provided by the live helicopters. Purchasing an Integrated Fire-Forward Air Control Trainer to support high and low combat vector training would also limit students' ability to use the radio, compass, and survival gear, and still man the aircraft. Furthermore, obtaining an aircraft through a contract within the community or scheduling Joint Airborne Air Transportability Training missions is unreliable and may not guarantee that the proper training is available.

It is also important to note that a training program based on simulators will reduce the amount of time students spend in the local environment. One of the primary reasons the Survival School relocated to Fairchild Air Force Base in 1966, was the region's thousands of acres of rugged terrain with varied climates for training in a limited area without high travel expenses.

It is imperative that we ensure our air crews receive safe, realistic, and quality training. At this time, it is unclear to me that the Air Force has developed plans for the 36th Rescue Flight and to effectively train thousands of aircrews each year without the use of live helicopters. I look forward to seeing the plan and discussing it with you at your convenience.

Sincerely,

Maria Cantwell United States Senator

cc: General William R. Looney III, Air Education and Training Command

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