December 7, 2011
Air Force Slashes Airshow Demos
An F-16 goes belly-up. (Photo: ACC)
Although the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds will still fly at 2012 airshows, as will the Air Force Heritage team, the service recently announced that its A-10, F-16, and F-15 single-ship demonstration teams will not. These teams used to appear at dozens of military and civilian shows.
Citing “significant fiscal constraints” and “best ways to provide combat airpower to warfighting commanders,” Air Combat Command said it will “scale back from six teams we’ve historically sponsored” to only the F-22, which will fly at some 20 shows. “Reallocating those sorties will provide an increase in more than 25 combat-ready fighter pilots, and that’s a very good thing for our Nation.”
Translation: “Dammit, Jim, we’re a fighting Air Force, not the Weekend Playhouse. And we’re broke. On top of that, we’ve got terrorists to fight. We’re giving you the F-22. So suck it up and deal with it.”
Airshow organizers fear that the loss of loud, pointy jets will mean a loss of revenue in attendance. On the other hand, airshows may come out even in the end, since they won’t have to pay for hotels, cars, maintenance equipment rental, security, and music licensing for the demo teams. Aviationist.com suggests the Air Force Secret Hidden Message is, “The F-22 is good for airshows. All the other combat planes are good for war.”
Penny wise and pound foolish. Pilots still need to fly a certain number of hours to be on flying status, doesn’t matter if its on a training range or an airshow. Thing is, with the closing of Air Force bases, this is probably the only AF that a lot of people come in contact with. It is a huge recruiting tool. The Thunderbirds can’t be everywhere.
Comment by ex AF — December 7, 2011 @ 3:15 pm
“…significant fiscal restraints…” Oh puhleeze. Give. Me. A. Break. The Department of Defense is awash in a sea of cash the likes of which hasn’t been seen since WWII. And even the most draconian of the “cuts” being contemplated by Congress and the President only SLOW THE RATE OF GROWTH!
Jeez. Sometimes the military higher ups, and the civilians who enable them and profit from them — all using our tax dollars — seem as greedy as Wall Street bankers, though I’ll wager most of ‘em have more conscience than the bankers do.
Comment by Michael Evans-Layng — December 11, 2011 @ 3:17 am