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380AEW Article

SECAF visits 380 AEW

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Ross M. Tweten
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  As the "sound of freedom" roared in the background, Secretary of the Air
Force Michael Wynne discussed issues affecting today's Airmen during a
visit here Feb. 3. 

While the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing's jets took off in support of
Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, the secretary discussed the
operations and the 380th's role within them. 

"Your operational readiness rate here and your mission capability rate is
superb," said Secretary Wynne. "Your ability to maintain and turn around
aircraft, get them in the air and make sure that we fly the frag is incredible." 

Secretary Wynne stressed that though the wing's aircraft are helping to
win the War on Terror, they are aging, and the Air Force needs to recapitalize
its fleet. 

"These are not young airplanes," he said. "Our Air Force is getting old. Our
equipment is getting old. When we said we were going to retire the U-2 there
were upset customers. I didn't realize we had that many customers, but they
came out of the woodwork defending the U-2. It's a really good platform, but
it's getting old. Maintenance would love to replace it tomorrow. We think the
time is probably sometime in the second half of the next decade. We're slowly
but surely migrating technologies off of the U-2." 

The 380th's U-2 Dragon Lady, RQ-4 Global Hawk, and E-3 Sentry aircraft
provide the eyes and ears over the battlefield, identifying increasingly difficult
targets in the Global War on Terror. 

According to Secretary Wynne, the first KC-X should be on the ramp in
2011. The 380 AEW provides a force multiplier effort in the form of arial refueling. 

KC-10 Extenders and KC-135 Stratotankers provide U.S. and allied aircraft
greater range and endurance for missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. 

"Things will start to change then, because we'll have stood down a large
segment of our KC-135 fleet by that time," he said. "We'll then be into the KC-
135R and double-teaming them. 

"We're going to retire many airplanes over the next three years and we need to
have those replaced. We know we need desperately to recapitalize our Air Force."