With a hundred years under its wings, Naval Aviation is facing a new fight: the battle of the budget. That was one of the conclusions from a panel of top brass at the Patuxent Partnership sponsored “Air Boss Panel” Thursday at the Bay District Volunteer Fire Department social hall in Lexington Park. The event was part of the week-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation leading up to this weekend’s Air Expo.
Panel moderator Naval Air System Command Commander Vice Admiral David Architzel led the discussion with panelists U.S. Marine Corps Deputy Commander for Aviation Lt. Gen Terry Robling, Commander of the Naval Air Force U.S. Pacific Fleet Vice Adm. Allen Myers and Program Executive Officer, Air ASW, Assault & Special Mission Programs, Rear Adm. Steve Eastburg.
About the looming budget battles, Robling said, “We are hoping for the best and planning for the worst.” He said it behooved everyone in the hall who cared about the future to be involved: “If you don’t want your military to be a hollow force, then talk to your state’s legislators.”
Robling advanced a theme picked up by the other panelists: the need for the Navy and Marine Corps to continue and improve on their history of collaboration. “There needs to be more collaboration and less fighting each other for dollars,” he said.
Myers said the United States has historically controlled the sea lanes and with Naval Aviation playing a key role in that. “The challenge is to maintain the capacity to be forwardly present,” he said.
Myers, as did the other speakers, held out much hope for the Naval Aviation Enterprise initiative, noting it was about collaboration and exchanging data.
According to the Naval Aviation Enterprise website: “The Naval Aviation Enterprise was the trailblazer for enterprise development within the Navy. The very beginning of our Enterprise stemmed from an acknowledgement that “business as usual” was not creating a more efficient or effective warfighting force. Unit readiness varied excessively over time with significant resources required to restore units to deployment readiness levels. Fiscal realities led to gaps in Naval Aviation’s modernization efforts. Despite a continued reduction in assets (flight hours, aircraft and manpower), the overall costs to Naval Aviation continued to increase at a pace that, over the long term, had eroded Naval Aviation’s buying power. A key to modernizing the fleet included controlling the rising operational and sustainment costs of aging aircraft and legacy equipment. We needed to manage how best to recapitalize our aircraft, while keeping our aging aircraft flying longer as the purchase of their replacements moved further into the future. Change was sought.”
Myers said in spite of the challenges, “This is an exciting time for Naval Aviation because “we are transitioning.” New aircraft are rolling out every day, he said, and mentioned unmanned aircraft
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