Senators suggest further purchases of C-17 aircraft

Senate appropriators Wednesday questioned the Air Force's intention to shut down production lines on the C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane, arguing that Bush administration plans to increase the size of the country's ground forces could require a more robust capability to airlift troops and equipment around the world.

The concerns, aired by Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and ranking member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, indicate Congress may move this year to once again add more C-17s to the Air Force fleet.

Ending production on the cargo plane is "a worrisome thing," Stevens told Pentagon leaders during the subcommittee's first hearing on the Pentagon's budget request. "I just share the fear that closing that line down wouldn't be too easy to open it" if the Air Force later decides more planes are needed.

In its fiscal 2008 budget request, the Air Force does not propose funding to buy any additional C-17s, a Boeing Co. plane assembled in Long Beach, Calif., and a longtime favorite for congressional add-ons. The Air Force did request two new C-17s in its long list of unfunded priorities sent to Capitol Hill earlier this month, but also asked for money to close production lines by fiscal 2009. With overseas deployments showing no immediate signs of abating, the White House also proposed permanently increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 new troops.

In response to lawmakers' concerns, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told the subcommittee he would evaluate whether the increased force size would require more C-17s than now planned. But he urged that the production on the C-17 program -- which affects thousands of jobs in 42 states -- must someday end. "The question is, when do we have enough?" he said.

England also warned that the military would have to raid other investment accounts if it continued to buy more C-17s. Congress last year added $2.1 billion for 10 new C-17s, bringing the size of the fleet to 191 planes. Pentagon studies completed last year have concluded the Air Force needs only 180 C-17s.

Wednesday's C-17 questioning seemed to validate concerns once held by military officials, who argued for years that boosting the military's authorized end strength would require significant investments in vehicles and other hardware and potentially put long-term modernization programs at risk.

Aside from the C-17, Pentagon leaders also were grilled on a budget proposal to retire 20 more B-52 bombers, reducing the size of the fleet to 56. Congress, which has routinely bucked Air Force efforts to retire the aging fleet, last year allowed the retirement of only 18 of 38 B-52s it had sought to take out of service.

The Air Force, which does not plan to field a new bomber until 2018 at the earliest, would create a "bomber gap" in the force if it retires more of the venerable B-52s, said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., whose state includes Minot Air Force Base, home to several B-52Hs.

But Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, Joint Chiefs of Staff vice chairman, argued that smaller and more precise bombs, which allow each B-52 to carry more munitions on board, would allow the Air Force to trim its fleet without taking significant operational risks.

Dorgan, who has long opposed efforts to retire B-52s, still was not satisfied. "This doesn't add up when you get to 56," he said.