European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 4, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse On Active duty. Lower the Bow wave of Bills coming due. The Carlucci approach of postponing deliveries could be accentuated or Bush could bite the Bullet harder by taking on Congress and cancelling weapons being built in lawmakers Home states Selling Lor a combination of a lower slate of readiness to fight and cancelling some weapons on order but not delivered. Ii did t have to Worth of this Way. But it said Lawrence a kerb who was Reagan s manpower and logistics chief at the Pentagon trom 1931 to 1985. We did t hedge our Bels Korb said. We assumed the. Defense budget would go up and Korb snid he services under when de Ense Secretary Caspar w. Weinberger put too Many of their dollars during. The Reagan buildup on sup weapons and Loo Tew on the spare parts and associated costs of keeping forces Battle ready and in the fight if a War should Start lament ing the failure of Reagan and Weinberger to strike a balance in their $2 trillion rearmament program. Korb predicted that he army will have to deactivate some of its units or show them to slip to a much lower slate of readiness to keep their costly new super weapons running. An analyst at Tho defense department shared kerb s View declaring we re in for creeping embarrassment just like the 1970s it s already happening. The army is smaller than when Reagan came in the Navy has had to retire ships and the air Force has fewer air wings because army 08,5 costs Are going out Lor these new weapons like the m1 tank and Apache helicopter you re going to hear a lot More talk about Burden sharing to make the Case Tor. The army taking some of its forces out of europe.". Reflecting the More optimistic View at the top of the Pentagon one executive said i Don t subscribe to the blood Bath theory. The department can live through almost anything Lor a Short period of time. The real problem is what will happen in the Long ii Carlucci and his allies Laii to make the ease Lor a. 2 percent increase in the fiscal 1990 and 1991 defense budgets slated to go to Congress in january the executive said Bush could postpone the crunch predicted by other officials by retiring various older weapons and towering Tho Tempo of operations. We re working Olf a higher human and physical foundation the Oil Cal said. Tho new smarter volunteers. In Iho aimed forces take better care of their weapons and learn their jobs taster a said which effectively Lowers Oss costs. He said computerized simulators that enable pilots and tank Drivers to learn their jobs without actually running the weapons also hold Promise Lor big savings interviews with military budget leaders confirmed that they believe past culs in Oss accounts such As aircraft spare parts already Are affecting readiness and. That Steps must be taken now to Cut Down the Stern wave of operating costs. ". -. Anybody who does t think these costs Are a problem has t taken his head out of the Sand said i Gen James f. Mccall army comp Rolter and the. Service s former budget director.-.-". We went Down in readiness by 3 percent in Augustor the first Lime since i960 As a result of the hit we took in aircraft last one Marine Leader said. Some defense department analysts contend that the of costs Lor new weapons will climb so High during Bush s Lisl term Hal just retiring old weapons Early would be like putting a band Aid on a Haemorrhage. The Pentagon has not collected comparable of costs or modern weapons. But the services have figures that illustrate Why Many officials behave the care and feeding of today s weapons will soon leave lit lie Money for anything else unless readiness is allowed to slip or big culs Are made elsewhere in the Pentagon budget. For example tanks. The army s new m-1 Abrams Lank costs $74 a mile to operate according to Gen. Maxwell h. Thu Trian head of the training and doctrine command impelling commanders at fort Riley and other bases to Lake the tanks to Man Euver areas on flatbed trucks. Helicopters the army s new High Lech Apache gunship Cost $2,728 an hour to Fly and maintain in fiscal 1987 compared with $1,708 for the simpler cobra gunship introduced during the Vietnam War. The new. Blackhawk troop Carrier costs $1,867 an hour 64 percent Over the $1,067 an hour uh1 Huey used in South Vietnam. a Ticonderoga class cruisers including the Vincennes which shot Down in Iran air commercial Jet in july Cost $5.027 an hour to run counting the salaries of the 357 officers and sailors on Board but not the Bills of contractors on Shore Lor repairing the complicated Black boxes in the heart of the Aegis antiaircraft system. This hourly Cost is Down from be Knap cruisers of the Vietnam Era which the Navy said Cost $0,589 an hour in comparable fiscal 1989 dollars to operate counting the salaries of the 472-Man Crew. The number of ships deployed at any one time determines the operating Cost of the Fleet. At the height of the persian Gulf escort operation last summer the Navy task Force Here was costing $10 million a month the Navy said. Government budget analysts said the Ticonderoga class lower operating costs Are Welcome but predict they will be offset by the Money Hal must be spent on recruiting and retaining the skilled sailors id operate the Aegis system and on civilian contractors Tor repairs Tho Navy plans to build 27 Ticonderoga class cruisers and 30 Ai Leigh Burke class destroyers equipped with the Aegis system. Bombers. The Ajr Force s new b l costs $5,480 an hour to Fly and maintain compared with 54,450. For the b 52,. The Cost of supporting the High Lech b-2 stealth bomber is expected to be considerably higher than the b-1. Light attack planes. The marines av8b harrier jump Al costs $1,670 in hour compared Wilh $1,379 for its predecessor Light bomber the a-1 skyhawk. This increase Marine corps aviation leaders said is offset by the f-a16 lighter attack plane costing $2.764 an hour to by Down irom Iho $3.025 hourly Cost Ollie f-4 phantom used Lor the same purpose in Vietnam Wilh a Lew exceptions military promises that new weapons would be less expensive to operate and support than the old ones Are not being Charles a. Bowsher head of the general accounting office warned Congress iwo years ago. Of costs arc increasing the military s rebuttal is thai new High tech weapons Are Worth their Cost because they do much More than their predecessors. But As rising of costs threaten additional purchases of High tech weapons the services Ere la Kinig Steps to lower the Stern wave. For example army. Comptroller Mccall said his service is exploring How much simulators could save in of costs. They have great potential he said not Only Lor training the Crews of individual m-1 tanks or Apache helicopters but also groups of them operating together. He said the army s five year plan Lor fiscal 1990-94 envisions no further reductions in the army s Active duty strength of 772,000, half Tho Vietnam War Peak of 1.57 million in uniform. Navy. Vice adm William d. Smith chief of Navy program planning and former budget director said his service to lower the Stern wave is considering pulling fewer pianos on each aircraft Carrier. The current target is 84. Other possibilities Are escorting carriers with Lawer warships letting readiness decline on ships nol deployed near trouble zones through sailing and Hying less postponing overhauls taking older weapons Oil ships to save the Cost of keeping them ready to fire. The Navy is different from the other services Smith said because in has been fighting the Battle of Oss costs ail through Reagan s two terms when naval forces were commit i led to such hot spots As Grenada Lebanon and the persian Gulf Smith said in trial Lime the Navy Learned How to be More efficient but will have to shill repairs to the right in austere budgets Force. Ii already has scrapped plans to operate 40 Active and Reserve tactical lighter wings and Sel lied Tor 35, one fewer than at the Start of Iho Reagan rearmament program in 1981, but of support Lor Tho b-1 bomber and stealth fighters already Hying and the anticipated costs of supporting the stealth bomber look stratospheric to some Pentagon budget specialists they predict the air. Force will have to Cut Back drastically on such future projects As the new Fig Hlor plane to cover zooming of costs. Marine corps. Ii you could Tell me tomorrow what the corps would gel Over the next three to five years and leave me alone i could restructure inside end get you a better program said it Gen. Charles h. Pitman Chiel of Marine aviation. Ii you Don t do thai. I Vegol to fight for everything. It we could go to a three to five year budget program that meant something. Then these contractors could quit sending their Guys Over to see me somebody has in Lake charge set goals and make them the corps reduced the number of. Helicopters in its squadrons to Cut of costs Marine leaders said the restructuring that would have to take place under Zero growth budgets will remain locked lip in lib cabinets until Bush signals what he wants to do about the building Stern and Bow Waves. The army m1 Annaa coals $74 a Moe to operate Sis Din ditto sunday december 4, 1988 the stars and stripes Paga 17
