Last Saturday, as expected, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates hit the C-17 cargo plane defenders with another left jab to the chin. In this match up, the Challengers are the Obama Administration, who wants to end production funds for Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster III advanced airlifter, which is assembled in Long Beach by about 5,000 skilled workers. The Defenders are just about everybody else in Washington DC, who wants to continue paying for more of the heavy airlifters.

Just as about 1,700 Long Beach Boeing airplane assembly workers were preparing to strike, Gates was delivering a major speech at the 65th Victory in Europe Day celebrations at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas. According to an internal Defense Department release, “Gates used the occasion to declare war on duplicative overhead, bloat and needless spending in the Defense Department.”

Last year, Gates called for an end to C-17 production and he repeated that call again this year when his budget was first unveiled. Last year, Gates used his presidential veto weapon to end some other programs which he put on the chopping block, but allowed C-17 production to continue. It seems that this year, Gates is aiming his veto threat knock out punch directly at the C-17 and the second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. That’s what he told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee in testimony back in March and he repeated that call again last Saturday in Kansas.

Last week, a few days before the speech, the Defense Department press office was drumming up coverage for the Saturday speech. Spokesperson Geoff Morrell said Gates would “reflect on General Eisenhower's national security policies and his approach to defense spending as president, to deliver a hard-hitting message on the need for greater fiscal discipline today.”

Gates said General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose portrait hangs behind Gates’ desk at the Pentagon, is one of his heroes. He said Eisenhower’s “life has been a source of wisdom and inspiration…Eisenhower was a low-maintenance leader of simple tastes, modest demands, and small entourages – in stark contrast to what often happens at the upper levels of power in Washington and in other elite settings.”

During last Saturday’s speech, Gates said “To be sure, changing the way we operate and achieving substantial savings will mean overcoming steep institutional and political challenges – many lying outside the five walls of the Pentagon. For example, in this year’s budget submission the Department has asked to end funding for an unnecessary alternative engine for the new Joint Strike Fighter and for more C-17 cargo planes. Study on top of study has shown that an extra fighter engine achieves marginal potential savings but heavy upfront costs – nearly $3 billion worth. Multiple studies also show that the military has ample air-lift capacity to meet all current and feasible future needs. The leadership of the Air Force is clear: they do not need and cannot afford more C-17s. Correspondingly, the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy do not want the second F-35 engines. Yet, as we speak, a battle is underway to keep the Congress from putting both of these programs back in the budget – at an unnecessary potential cost to the taxpayers of billions of dollars over the next few years. I have strongly recommended a presidential veto if either program is included in next year’s defense budget legislation.”

Strong words to be sure. Meanwhile, as the Boeing C-17 workers authorize a strike and reject the company’s so called “best and final” offer, the usual C-17 Defenders have been pretty quiet. While Boeing is moving forward with a 10 plane order from India, there have been no other announcements of large orders to keep the production line running.

Gates wrapped up his speech with “What is required going forward is not more study. Nor do we need more legislation. It is not a great mystery what needs to change. What it takes is the political will and willingness, as Eisenhower possessed, to make hard choices – choices that will displease powerful people both inside the Pentagon and out.”

Stay tuned to www.OC180NEWS .com for news about the C-17 and Boeing’s other major local operations.