ARTICLE

May 2004

Washington Pulse

by Sandra I. Erwin

Congress Fears Another Contras Scandal
Despite widespread support on Capitol Hill to put Iraq and Afghanistan back on their feet, the Pentagon has had a tough time getting $500 million authorized in 2005 to train and equip those nations’ armies. The reason is that many lawmakers fear a repeat of what happened in Nicaragua in the 1980s, when funds were diverted without congressional approval to train the Contra rebels. Although Pentagon officials have assured Congress that the money they seek is for “friendly regional forces,” skepticism has prevailed so far. Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim, just before he retired, said he was hopeful that Congress would come around. “We need the money for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and the Afghan police forces,” he said.

Industry Consolidation Contributed to Tanker Woes
The Air Force would have been much better off if there had been more than one U.S. competitor bidding for the air-refueling tanker program, says Secretary James Roche. Ongoing investigations into procurement irregularities associated with an Air Force decision to lease up to 100 767 tankers from Boeing effectively derailed the program, Roche says. The debacle could have been avoided if there had been a legitimate competition. The European consortium Airbus is the only other vendor that could have competed with Boeing, but a contract of that magnitude—worth about $23 billion—would not likely have been awarded to a non-U.S. supplier.

“Part of the problem is the collapse of the defense industry,” Roche says. “We are increasingly dealing with monopolies. When I was in the industry, I said it was wrong to over-consolidate, and that we would come to regret it.”

Romania Prepares Bases to Host U.S. Troops
As part of a global realignment of U.S. forces, the Defense Department could be expected to move a yet-to-be determined number of troops to Romania. George Cristian Maior, the Romanian secretary of state, says Pentagon officials and experts already have surveyed several facilities. “We expect that some sites would be chosen and after the round of political discussion, the implementation would start,” Maior told reporters, at a Washington, D.C., news conference.

In anticipation of a larger U.S. presence, Romania signed a memorandum of understanding with Northrop Grumman for future services, such as logistics support and information technology.

Any U.S. bases in Romania will be small, by Cold War standards. “The idea is to not have any large bases anymore, such as Ramstein, with all the social ramifications, but much smaller, more flexible,” Maior says. Facilities that would support U.S. troops include a navy yard, a shipyard, a civilian airport, railroads, hospitals and recreational sites.

Request for More C-17s Up in the Air
Although the U.S. Transportation Command repeatedly has asked the Air Force to buy more C-17 heavy lift cargo airplanes, a decision to do so is far from certain. Congress already approved 180 aircraft, but TRANSCOM would like 222, based on the ever-growing demands for airlift. Air Force Secretary James Roche, however, is not convinced that the surge in airlift demand necessarily warrants more aircraft.

TRANSCOM naturally has been overstretched as a result of ongoing wars, but it doesn’t mean that its requirements for airlift will be this high on a permanent basis, Roche says. “You have to ask the question: How often would you face a situation like Iraq? … How often would we fight hundreds of miles inland, away from the sea, as in Afghanistan?” The required number of C-17s should not go up necessarily, but Roche cautions that he would not be surprised if a future TRANSCOM study proved that the number should be increased.

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