Letter from Roger P. Lempke (President AGAUS) to Chairman Principi dtd July 18, 2005 Page: 3 of 10
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AGAUS to BRAC Commission Questions in a letter dated July 8, 2005
#2 - In any conversion, there is a period of time in which combat capability is lost.
Combat capability is also likely to suffer as a result of DoD's plans to accelerate the
retirement of certain weapons systems. What does the prospect of losing higher than
anticipated levels of personnel, coupled with the accelerated drawdown of material,
mean for the Guard's mission capabilities? In the event of an aircraft conversion, how
long should it take for a unit to achieve a high combat rating?
The Air National Guard has a long history of aircraft conversions. These have typically been
conducted in sequential fashion over some extended period to avoid overwhelming training and
support resources. At a single location a two to three year timeframe for successful conversion is
common-even with disparate airframes such as converting from fighters to tankers. But when
conversion is combined with movement problems multiply and achieving combat readiness can
be significantly delayed.
The move of the 126th from O'Hare IAP to Scott AFB is instructive. In FY 2000, a year after the
move started, nearly 50% of the wing was in training. Combat readiness in some UTC's still has
not reached maximum readiness due to the personnel training requirement. Currently, 17
crewmembers from the 126th Operations Group commute from the Chicago area. This causes
difficultly especially with last minute changes to flying and deployment schedules. Combining
moves with conversion is a potentially devastating combination.
The 116th relocated from Dobbins AFB to Robins AFB and converted from F-15s to B-1s in the
late 1990's-a move of about 115 miles. Over 90 percent of the pilots either did not want to
move or could not take time off to attend the mandatory transition school. Consequently, nearly a
complete turnover occurred in Operations. Fulltime maintenance required for the B-1 mission
doubled. The hiring process for this increase took nearly three years.
Air Force training resources cannot absorb large numbers of requirements that result from
densely packed conversions. A look at the A-10 weapon system highlights this problem. Six
bases are slated to add aircraft per BRAC recommendations. A reasonable estimate is for 57
transition courses being needed to compliment direct hire and UPT fills for these units. The
transition course at Barksdale AFB accomplishes 24 courses per year. These are already full
keeping up with new hires to balances retirements and other losses. The moves proposed by
BRAC recommendations for the A-10 aircraft alone will necessitate doubling Air Force transition
course availability for a two to five year period.
The combination of numerous conversions under a tight time schedule along with limited Air
Force transition courses in all weapon systems will keep many converted units in a low readiness
status for extended periods. If a "normal" conversion takes two years it is not unreasonable to
expect units after BRAC to require five or more years to reach a high readiness status.Page 2 of 9
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Letter from Roger P. Lempke (President AGAUS) to Chairman Principi dtd July 18, 2005, letter, July 23, 2005; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc18437/m1/3/: accessed March 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.