Army Aviation Needs Him Now-Where's Billy Mitchell

摘要

In the years preceding his 1925 courts martial for insubordination, Brigadier General 'Billy' Mitchell espoused that future wars will be won from the air and that the military must bring airpower, through the procurement of purpose-built aircraft, to the forefront. He was a visionary strategist before his time. His predictions, many of which came true, played out nowhere more clearly than the Japanese air component build up and subsequent attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, the United States rapidly built and sustains, still to this day, the strongest multi-service air power in the world. In the war years, the industrial base of the United States was changed from automobiles and washing machines to tanks, ships, and airplanes. Depots responsible for repairing these aircraft and their many inclusive complex and maintenance- intensive parts sprung up around the country. In many cases though, aircraft that were deemed too costly to repair or were too damaged were stripped of parts and other aircraft were built to replace them, an easy decision when the industrial base is manufacturing one every fifteen minutes and the aircraft are relatively simple by design. Over the past 60 years, the depots to support these aircraft have virtually disappeared; meanwhile, the aircraft have grown extremely complex. Manufacturers have dried up as well, and the time to manufacture an aircraft has gone from one week to multiple years with many vendors in this global economy. Hindered by limited resources, the Services have been buying smaller and smaller numbers of the highest priority aircraft. Few in numbers, these aircraft are costly and maintenance intensive. While not currently involved in a high-intensity conflict with aircraft loss rates comparable to Vietnam or Korea, the United States could lose the next mid-to high-intensity conflict due to its inability to repair and manufacture these complex aircraft, given the current state of the aviation industry.