Comments on: Page One Ignorance

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:05:40 +0000

They do when they are available, but Cheney has had to use the Airstream in the cargo plane because they weren’t available.

For insurance reasons, charter airlines don’t want to fly into war zones, which is why people have to be taken to and from Kuwait for troop rotations. The VIPs get to Kuwait on their own, but then the military takes over.

The modules make sense, because you can load cargo into the rest of the space rather than wasting all of the fuel on a few people. Fuel is a major concern these days, and fighters burn a lot of it.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:40:09 +0000

So, given that they already have them, why can’t they use the VP’s and the Secretary of State’s aircraft for these VIP trips? Or do what all the other bigwigs do and charter a commercial plane, which would then be provided with a military escort for security? I have to think the latter would be a far cheaper option than these farkin’ capsule thingies.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:42:10 +0000

The Air Force generally bought second-hand airliners to use as VIP aircraft and trainers, especially the C-137 version of the Boeing 707. The conversion costs are absurd to add the defensive systems.

Personnel transport was out sourced to commercial airlines to avoid having to buy and maintain airliners. The Air Force has concentrated on cargo aircraft, and that’s what they have for intercontinental distances.

You can’t just buy one, you need at least two, and you need crews to fly and maintain them. The parts are not identical to the military cargo versions of the same aircraft, so there’s more expense. This is why the Air Force wanted out of the airliner business.

The problem is the defensive gear and secure communications.

This started with the airlift guys, who really don’t want to be in the passenger business, but when the Department of Defense tells them to do it, they don’t have much choice. They are already stuck with the two Presidential aircraft, and the 737s used by the VP and Secretary of State – that’s a lot of resources for no military value – and now they have to deal with Congress.

Some of this was the sense of entitlement of the Rumsfeld era, when even minor Pentagon officials were using first class tickets instead of the coach that they were supposed to be using. CEOs don’t want to travel with “the lower classes” and the military doesn’t have a lot of options.

For what it’s worth, some the biggest complainers in Congress about military waste, are the same people who don’t want to ride in the cheap seats.

As for the leather, the seats are built for the airline industry, and leather is the norm. Getting a cloth or vinyl seat would probably be more expensive as it would require a break in the line.

By: mapaghimagsik

mapaghimagsik — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:28:54 +0000

Thanks for the clarification on this. It makes somewhat more sense now that you’ve explained how this would save money and what the need is for.

At the same time, I do have these thoughts.
1) Sure, Congress gets a ride, but if they wanna play solder adventurer/ they should ride in the cheaper seats, just like everyone else.
2) I realize that some of our congress critters are not hale enough to be riding gonzo like regular folks. At the same time, they should consider sending a surrogate.

It seems to me, that a no frills version of what they are trying to do could be created. I can see the need for VIPs to have access to communications and be protected in the event something goes wrong in flight. I also think that bucket seats and rich corinthean leather are a bit much 😉

This really does go back to the fact that while we want to claim we are treating our leaders like CEOs, we’re treating them like royalty, which is just odd. However, I’ve noticed that our C and even D level folks are getting treated more like royalty and less like people with a job to do.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:20:08 +0000

It still looks wasteful, though. And historically, that’s been a bad thing in what we’re constantly being told is “wartime.” If they’ve gotta fly bigwigs around, then let them buy a couple of beefed-up aircraft–and let them be functional but not luxurious. If that level of comfort and convenience was good enough for the “Greatest Generation” during WWII, surely the present batch of gasbags can accommodate themselves to it.

And “comfort capsule” brings back a lot of less-than-pleasant word associations that I really would have thought DoD was smart enough to avoid.