Chicago, IL, -- UPDATE TO MAY 28, 2009 RELEASE: Among several items discussed in the Administration's 2010 Budget overview released yesterday was Boeing's C-17 Globemaster III Strategic/Tactical airlifter, and yet again it has voiced a desire to shut down production of this critical aircraft citing "DoD analyses".
In view of what can be perceived as a continuing -- albeit of lesser intensity -- threat to the existence of C-17, Myron D. Stokes, Managing Member of Global HeavyLift Holdings, LLC, a Florida incorporated, Bloomfield Hills, MI based DLA-listed firm (www.ccr.gov)
"As we noted in our May 28, 2009 release, C-17 is not only absolutely essential to current and anticipated force projection requirements in a world wherein conventional and asymmetric conflict potential exists concomitantly,"
"I daresay that data from several and quite significant resources, inclusive of the limited availability 2005/2006 Department of Commerce C-17 Industrial Base Impacts Study, strongly, if not overwhelmingly, suggests the direction and viewpoints articulated by our Washington colleagues relative to C-17's continued existence is at best flawed, and at worst, not reflective of the great responsibilities conferred upon them by the office in which they serve.
"It should be noted that while we have the greatest respect for the offices of the SECDEF, SECAF and those to whom they report, we feel it necessary to again invoke the wisdom, past and present, of DoD personnel such as the late VADM Arthur K. Cebrowski, whose vast experience and knowledge cannot be ignored. In this instance, we feel it appropriate to highlight the conclusions of decorated U.S. Army 4-Star General (Ret'd) Barry R. McCaffrey, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, United States Military Academy (USMA) West Point, as outlined in an "After Action" Report following visits to Nellis and Scott Air Force Bases 14-17 August, 2007."
The report was designed to summarize assessments of USAF capabilities and resources in the face of current, emergent and projected threats to national security. General McCaffrey's comments on C-17 are as follows:
2nd -- The C-17 Globemaster III.
• We must create the strategic national military airlift and air-to-air refuel capability (600+ C-17 aircraft) to project national military and humanitarian power in the global environment. We currently have an inadequate capability with 150 aircraft supported by an aging refueling fleet. The C-5 aircraft must be retired—these planes are shot. The Army must back off the dubious proposition that they will size their ground combat force around the volume and lift metrics of the C-130 --- and instead use the C-17 as the sizing template.
• The Rumsfeld doctrine postulated bringing home deployed Army and Air Force capabilities from Europe, Okinawa, and Korea. This seismic strategic shift was unexamined and not debated by Congress or the American people. We are bringing home ground and air strike assets thousands of miles--- from basing infrastructure paid for by allies--- to unprepared US launch platforms. If we are to pose a serious deterrent capability in the dangerous world arena--- then we must credibly be able to project power back into future combat areas to sustain allies at risk.
• The C-17 represents the capacity to carry out this strategic power projection mission ---as well as providing intra-theater logistics and humanitarian lift for pin point distribution of thousands of truck load equivalents of supply per day.
• The C-17 is a global national transportation asset--- not merely a military or Air Force system.
The whole of the report is accessible via the link
http://www.mccaffreyassociates.com/
and should be considered a "must read" by all concerned.
Knowledge is Power
"I will respond preemptively to those who are quick to dismiss the views and analytics crafted by retired DoD personnel as 'irrelevant and inapplicable', by saying that such assertions are sophomoric, unsustainable, without merit and wholly dismissive of the Dr. W. Edwards Deming advocated pursuit of profound knowledge," says Stokes. "To be sure, we benefit from applying accumulated knowledge, as has been evident since humankind first saw the need to record and preserve what was learned. The Library of Alexandria is an ancient and extraordinary example of this premise."
Tanker Procurement Process Observations
Further commenting on the recent re-release of USAF Tanker competitive requirements after Boeing's successful protest to the GAO against EADS/Airbus, Stokes conveys the viewpoints of several academic, government and industrial associates that the need to preserve C-17 is as critically important as the necessity of having the tanker requirement fulfilled by a true US firm. "It must be designed, developed, engineered, manufactured and sustained in the United States. This is not jingoism, this is not nationalism, this is not representative of a disturbing naivete as concerns the so-called "new globality", but rather, a recognition that the country's industrial base must be maintained. Moreover, it must be OWNED and controlled by American firms with a strongly supportive role by the US government as is common practice by other industrialized nations.
"This is to say, even if the A330-based Tanker were indeed designed, engineered and manufactured here, the question at the end of the day is 'Where does the money go?' Answer: To overseas bank accounts. Also, 'Would there be any guarantees that manufacturing and design would remain on these shores in the event of a global economic schism (again) thereby resulting in calls by company stakeholders to shrink the company's global footprint in the interests of 'fiduciary responsibility?
Based on the recorded activities of international corporations, the answer is no.
"The idea that obvious illegalities in the form of WTO disallowed EU subsidies designed to give EADS/Airbus ( Northrop-Grumman, with its extraordinary history of aircraft development, is nothing more than, sadly, a front to give the illusion of "Americaness"
Stokes suggests a much needed expansion of the DoD's paraphrased assertion that "we are in pursuit of the best value for the warfighter" would include '...,the American worker and taxpayer."
Contact :
John T. Chuhran
Global HeavyLift Holdings, LLC
74 W. Long Lake Rd.
Suite 103
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
253-220-2566
globalheavyliftholdings@
http://www.emotionreports.com
