🚀 go-pugleaf

From CMSgt Mike Bergman <bergman@afnews.pa.af.mil>

043.  Rice's farewell
by TSgt. David P. Masko
Air Force News Service
     WASHINGTON -- Air Force Secretary Donald B. Rice said there is still work
to be done if the Air Force is to maintain cutting edge capability in a future
of smaller defense budgets.
     "My own personal view is that we have reduced about as far as it's
prudent and reasonable to do," Rice told reporters at the Pentagon Jan. 15, a
few days before his tenure as secretary expired.
     The current budget situation, and the need to restructure, has come to
mean more changes for the Air Force in the future. For instance, Rice said the
Air Force has been looking very hard at transferring some conventional bombers
to the Guard and Reserve.
     Depending of what happens with the drawdown, there will likely be some
"additional reshuffling of missions between active and reserve forces."
     Although Rice wouldn't speculate on where new defense cuts will come, he
said the main way that reductions are going to be found is in reducing force
structure and end strength.
     The Air Force intends to continue to focus on the importance of keeping a
well-trained, ready force as it downsizes, he said.
     "The main message I'd like to leave to Air Force people is, if you can
meet the quality standards of a smaller Air Force for the future, it is going
to be a great place to practice a career.
     "If you have the self-confidence, that you measure up, then hang in
there... we still got a ways to go to get through the drawdown, but there's a
great institution to be part of when we get finished with this process."
     Rice, who left office Jan. 20 after more than three years as the Air
Force's top civilian leader, hopes he will be remembered as someone who
started the development of Global Reach - Global Power, the planning framework
for the Air Force.
     Global reach and power "helped lift the sights of the institution to the
broader question of the role of airpower in joint military operations... of
what airpower has to contribute in a modern age," he said.
     High points of Rice's Air Force legacy include consolidation of
functions, delayering organizations, elimination of excess headquarters,
streamlining functions, introduction of total quality management practices and
structuring a better cradle-to-grave management of weapon systems.
     "I think we can take considerable pride in the restructuring of the Air
Force, which has involved bringing to bear modern management principles all
throughout the Air Force," he said.
     "In the process we have refocused the Air Force, and the organization of
the Air Force on the missions that matter to the post-Cold War world."
     The past three years will also be remembered as a time when "we made some
headway on designing the detail of a leaner, meaner, albeit smaller Air Force
of the future," he said.
     While tight budgets put a premium on choosing the right systems to
protect America, Rice believes the use of airpower in the future will rely not
just on advanced technology and concepts, but on ever-increasing cooperation
between land, sea, air and space forces.
     To help keep the costs of building and developing new aircraft, Rice said
the Air Force and the Navy both have an opportunity and a responsibility to
hone their cooperation.
     When the department gets to building the new multi-role fighter, the Navy
and the Air Force could carry that out collaboratively, he said.
     Although building a new fighter "will be a number of years down the road
today given budget realities and force structure needs... eventually, there's
going to have to be an airplane that replaces A-10s, F-16s and F-18s.
     "I don't see any reason why that airplane can't be designed from the
beginning, jointly by the Navy and the Air Force."
     After stepping down as Air Force secretary, Rice said, he plans to go
into business and live in the Los Angeles area.
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    |           Kelly Air Force Base, Texas, USA                       | 
    |               bergman@afpan.pa.af.mil                            |  
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