National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I want to thank Matt Donovan and Stephen Barney of Senator McCain's staff for their patience and assistance in drafting this amendment.
I also want to thank COL Anthony Lazarski of Senator Inhofe's staff and, of course my senior colleague from Oklahoma.
I say to the chairman and Senator Reed, I have the privilege of representing America's Global Response Force, the XVIII ABN Corps and the 82nd ABN Division.
As Senator Reed knows from his long service in the division, the 82nd is the most decorated combat unit in the Armed Forces--it is America's Guard of Honor.
GEN Colin Powell famously said, ``There is nothing that gets a bad guy's attention quicker than knowing the 82nd ABN is flying straight for his nose.''
But to put it bluntly, the Air Force wants to take the ``air'' out of ``airborne''.
In 2012 the Air Force decided to deactivate the Reserve Air Wing at Pope Army Airfield at Fort Bragg and eliminate onsite daily support for training for XVIII ABN Corps, 82nd ABN and USASOC.
The wing consists of 8-12 C-130Hs.
Last year this committee required the Air Force to produce a report on the C-130 fleet during which time the Air Force was required to maintain its wings at Pope and Little Rock for 1 year--the report came out in April, the committee expected it last December. The Congress was to be given time to respond.
Unfortunately, the Air Force began dismantling the Wing at Pope long before the report was produced and in direct opposition to this committee's instructions. When asked about this, the Air Force said, ``Congress said nothing about us taking away pilots and maintainers, we are leaving the Aircraft''.
The chairman's mark is full of behaviors like this: including Air Force refusal to heed the recommendations of the National Commission on the Air Force and the SECAF's refusal to cut the size of AF headquarters.
In my brief time in this body I have repeatedly asked the Air Force for documentation as to the impact on Airborne and Special Operations training the departure of dedicated Air Force Wings will have. I have been rebuffed by Pentagon leadership.
The Deputy Commander of the USAF Reserve said that planes at Pope were a ``luxury''. The Chief of Staff of the Air Force said that the Air Force needed to maintain C-130s at Minneapolis, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh for important missions. With all due respect is there any mission at Pittsburgh, Youngstown, and Minneapolis that is as important as supporting Airborne and Special Operations units.
In the last 3 months, the commanders of the XVIII ABN Corps and 82nd ABN have taken the extraordinary step of delivering public speeches noting that Airborne and Special Operations leadership were not consulted about the Air Force decision and that the loss of onsite planes will severely hamper their ability to train and meet requirements of emergency contingencies.
The Pope planes provide between 25 to 40 percent of all Airborne and SOF daily training missions. Last year they dropped 50 percent of the 82nd ABN's chutes; 440 AW provides 100 percent of 18 ASOG, Air Force, training--Air Force Special Operations Group.
Even as a cost savings device, the transfer of 8 to 12 planes out of Pope makes no sense, as planes will have to be flown in--often on a voluntarily basis if they are Reserve units--from around the country and those units will have to go on TDY orders, etcetera. This also does not provide for the moving to the left effects of weather grounding planes that would have to fly into Pope from the rest of the country. As the XVIII ABN Corps Commander said, the downstream effects will be problematic.
This amendment is simple and it supports the C-130 Avionic Modernization Program that the Air Land Subcommittee validated yesterday by accepting the chairman's $75 million mark and the Manchin amendment.
The Secretary of the Air Force shall, by September 30, 2017, station aircraft previously modified by the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program, AMP, in direct support of the daily training and contingency requirements of the Army Airborne and Special Operations units. The Secretary shall provide such personnel as required to maintain and operate such aircraft.
There are roughly 260 C-130Hs left--I believe the AF will try and retire up to 100, and it will hopefully replace 50 more with C-130J models--this leaves 100 C-130Hs that need AMP.
The AF spent $2.3 billion on C-130H AMP, the program was on schedule and cost when the AF cancelled it, the design was validated by the JROC, Joint Requirements Oversight Council, and the program had begun Low Rate Initial Production, LRIP.
We currently have five C-130H AMP aircraft at Little Rock that will be flown to the bone yard at a loss of approx $300 million, as well as four AMP kits that can be modified to fit any C-130H, three simulators and all software that will be thrown away
We can have nine AMP C-130Hs plus simulators and software for $75 million--this also adheres to the law Congress passed last year and was validated by the Manchin amendment yesterday.
The bottom line is, if the AF does not take this course, it will send the five C-130H AMP aircraft to the boneyard, wasting $300 million, not to mention the simulators and software. Total amount spent for AMP was $2.3 billion. Program was approved by JROC and was on schedule and cost when AF tried to cancel it. There are roughly 260 C-130Hs left--I believe the AF will try and retire up to 100, and it will hopefully replace 50 more with C-130J models--this leaves 100 C-130Hs that need AMP. Total cost to get nine aircraft, all simulators and software running again is approximately $75M which was funded this year.
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