A Study In Entropy...

No, this isn't a new Sherlock Holmes story, but rather the curious conundrum the USAF finds itself in with the large part of their air fleet getting older (as are we all).

I posted a while back about the grounding of much of the fleet of F-15 fighters due to structural fatigue found in one of the main supports for what we would call the "spine" of the aircraft. And now it's prompted the Air Force into looking at rest of their airworthy inventory to see if this was just an isolated case.

Webster's dictionary defines ENTROPY as:

The steady degradation or disorganization of a system or a society.

Let's just say that the Air Force didn't like what it found.

So Air Force officials are warning that unless their budget is increased dramatically AND soon, the military's high-flying branch won't be dominating the skies as it has for decades.

Let's face facts; after more than 6 years of war in the Middle East, the aging fighters, bombers, tankers, cargo aircraft and gunships are at that tipping point of maximum entropy, and that new aircraft are needed fast. War has a tendency to do that to machinations of conflict.

It's not like you're driving to and from work in your Honda, and the worst thing you'll encounter will be a pothole. We're talking going to and from "work" at speeds (in many cases) in excess of the speed of sound. And while you're "at work", you might have to dodge some "triple-A" (anti-aircraft artillery) fire, so you do a lot of "jinking" (high speed turns and swerves) to keep what you left the ground with attached to the aircraft when you get back.

That will make a crew chief happy to NO end!

They hate replacing parts and patching holes on "their" plane that they LOANED to the pilot.

The stress that these airframes encounter far surpasses most every other aircraft built, including passenger jets (which suffer from their own unique version of stress-related problems).

Maj. Gen Paul Selva (dir- strategic planning) said: "If we're going to do the missions you ask us to do, it will require this kind of investment. Failing that, we take what is already a geriatric Air Force and we drive it for another 20 years into an area of uncertainty".

And the grand total is...(drum roll)....$100 BILLION DOLLARS.

We're talking about an extra $20 billion over the next 5 years, beginning with an Air Force budget of about $137 billion in 2009. And the hope of getting all that money seems dim at best for now. As in times past, we've seen that recessions, rising federal deficits, and distaste for higher taxing of the public all lead to declines in defense spending.

There are those that feel the USAF's predicament is largely self-inflicted.

Both the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning (JSF) are drastically more expensive aircraft, yet they are to replace the aging F-15s and F-16s. And they can do more than their predecessors, so there is ALWAYS a trade-off. Yet these two fighters alone will assure that the USAF has air supremacy for years to come, if not decades for three of the armed services (with the JSF alone).

The problem comes with constantly upgrading weapons systems when perfectly sound systems are already proven and in place. We can blame that on lobbyists for large corporations that gobble up government contracts food at the all-you-can-eat buffet. When you focus on WEAPONS (alone), the PLANES will suffer the most, when it comes to entropy.

The USAF has added new aircraft over the last 15 years, such as the V-22 Osprey (finally got all the bugs worked out of that with Boeing), the C-17 Globemaster (which replaced the C-141 Starlifter), and the B-2 Stealth bomber. We do however still have a fleet of B-52s (as old as me) that have a few more years of life left in them, but they don't deal with the manuevers the old Falcons and Eagles have to endure.

After only 5000 hours, an F-15 disintegrated in flight during a routine training mission over Missouri. As these planes age, corrosion will eat away at parts...that's one of those inevitabilities of life. Wiring will get brittle, chafe and fail. Sealing will harden and become useless. These are all components of entropy.

We can't afford to place our servicemen and women at risk every time they get behind the stick and take to the skies to preserve freedom. We need to cut the fat while ensuring the budget for the Air Force includes planes that will remain safe.

And even if that means purchasing new aircraft from another nation, then so be it. We've sold OUR planes around the world.

Perhaps Gen. John D.W. Corley, head of Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, VA sums it up best: "An hour is NOT an 'hour' when it comes to these aircraft. It's like DOG YEARS".

If that's the case, General, most of us (myself included) are already "dead".

I'm (like many of these planes) just too damn busy to lay the hell down!