misunderstandings

military aircraft

I read seemingly countless sources of ideas every day, some better and others worse. Much of it relates to national security in one way or another because that’s been my scholarly focus for so long, plus as a citizen I want to know what is going on.

An exchange in a huge chatroom caught my attention early this morning amid our week of tragedy, upheaval, and day-to-day humdrum, all of which are occurring simultaneously. The primary focus of the original email message condemned the Trump administration’s choice to use U.S. military flights for the deportations being carried out across the country. Retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, a National War College student in the 1990s before rising to be a senior Army officer in Europe, wrote an article on The Bulwark about using these cargo flights to deport migrants, condemning the spectacle of parading the apprehended into the planes on military bases.

It wasn’t Hertling’s article that got my attention but another chatroom member’s note “[S]ocial media, even ’normal media’, are awash with comments like ‘Well, why not use air force planes? They’re free. They’re just sitting around doing nothing’”.

This is a misunderstanding on so many levels. Military planes are hardly free in any sense I can conjure up: they are expensive, specialized tools of national security whether the airframes or the crews. As Hertling notes, a civilian Boeing 737 costs about $100 million per plane. Air Force planes, equipped again by manufacturer Boeing, are at least twice as expensive because they fly with specialized fuel tanks, aeronautics, different landing gears, and various defensive features which we provide our pilots. That cost figure is merely for the plane, without exploring the costs of training the superb fliers who take these cargo planes into the air. That cost also ignores the maintenance costs required to keep these superb machines at their maximum capacity. Under no circumstances can one describe these as free.

Military cargo planes are enormous, expensive war machines. That is why you and I the taxpayer buy them, using them as tools of statecraft to support military operations. People probably focus more on fighters and bombers but cargo flights are utterly vital to transporting people and materiel across the globe. Those trained to fly the C-17, the C-9, or the C-130 airframes are—like all military personnel—exquisitely trained. They exercise to be the finest force in the world to be available at a moment’s notice to carry out the security needs of our country whenever required. In an era where we deploy forces so frequently, military aviation activity across the services is frequent.

If those on social media mean the cargo planes are just sitting around rather than on long-term deployment, that assumption is wrong as well. Being a pilot doesn’t mean “one and done” qualifying to fly but requires constant reappraisals of skills to assure most effective performance. Our vast array of requirements across the globe mandate the armed forces put its personnel through constant, on-going, persistent training to assure mastery and safety, both for the planes and the crews. You and I hardly want to lose a plane worth hundreds of millions dollars any more than we want to see a crew injured or killed. The constant efforts to assure the best quality force means everything is going on all of the time rather than awaiting a mission. U.S. military units are also involved around the world 24/7 every single day of the year. They are not sitting around without something to do but, whether active duty or reservists or National Guard, these fliers are hardly looking for something to do with their time.

The tragic crash less than eight hours ago between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet 400 feet over the Potomac River reflects this reality. We have no answers yet on the cause of the mid-air collision but we do know the Blackhawk was on a training mission en route from Fort Belvoir (south of Washington, D.C. in Virginia) while the commercial flight was on final approach on its flight from Wichita. Trying to find the sixty-seven people on both crafts is the immediate concern, as it should be, but we will later hear more on what the Blackhawk crew was doing last night over the Potomac.

It’s tempting to assume the military (or federal government, for that matter) operates automatically, as if there were no costs and actions involved. But the argument that the military is automatically cheaper or unencumbered with missions is just incorrect.

A response to yesterday’s column on nuclear weapons and Dr. Strangelove. A faithful paid subscriber who knows the North Korean problem better than anyone I know sent me the following comment yesterday afternoon:

4. This is the critical Strategic Assumption: North Korea will never negotiate away its nuclear capabilities as long as the Kim family regime remains in power. However, denuclearization must remain the long term goal, and the US cannot fall victim to the regime’s political warfare strategy by entering into arms control negotiations or recognizing the north as a nuclear state.

5. Recognize that it is the Kim family regime that has the hostile policy and strategy toward the ROK, the US, and the free world.

6. Recognize that north Korea is an integral part of the Axis of upheaval or Dark Quad and actually provides key support to China (as a disruptor of the ROK/US alliance and ROK/Japan/US trilateral cooperation), Russia (military support to Putin’s War), and Iran (with advanced military equipment to Iran and its proxies through its extensive proliferation activities to raise funds for regime survival). If you want to achieve effects versus China, Russia, and Iran you must attack the relationships among the four. Northeast/East Asia is the new “great game” of “strategic competition” and the South Korean political turmoil is a casualty in the game. China is playing the game but does the US recognize that such a game is taking place?

7. Therefore, given the hostile nature of the Kim family regime it is imperative to maintain a high level of combined military readiness in Northeast Asia to deter and recognize the single most important contribution to deterring the Kim family regime is the presence of US troops.

8. Recognize that while the defense of Taiwan is important to the free world, that a free Taiwan is of little value if it comes at the expense of South Korea being dominated by north Korea and China. The US must take a holistic approach to national security in the Indo-Pacific.

9. The neglected threat from north Korea is internal instability. The conditions that lead to internal instability and potential regime collapse are also the conditions that could lead Kim to make the decision to go to war as a desperate attempt to survive. It is critical to recognize that Kim Jong Un is under threat from within. He fears the Korean people in the north more than the combined ROK and US militaries. Information is an existential threat to his rule, and this must be used to US and ROK/US alliance advantage.

10. The long term strategy of the U.S. must rest on the foundation of military deterrence and “strategic strangulation” – the well-executed use of sanctions and all instruments of national power to prevent weapons proliferation, cyber-attacks, and global illicit activities to support the regime. The new strategy must consist of three pillars to support the Korean people in the north to create the conditions for change inside north Korea: (1) a human rights upfront approach (emphasize the fundamental human right of self-determination of government per the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights); (2) an information and influence campaign to inform and educate the Korean people in the north about their human rights and provide them practical knowledge for how to take collective action and create the conditions for change; (3) support to the Korean people on both sides of the DMZ as they seek to solve the Korean question and establish a free and unified Korea, a new nation, a United Republic of Korea (ROK). A Korea that is secure and stable, non-nuclear, economically vibrant, and unified under a liberal constitutional form of government based on individual liberty, rule of law, and human rights as determined by the Korean people. A free and unified Korea or in short, a United Republic of Korea (U-ROK).

11. If I could only give 12 words to the Trump administration it would be these: Unification first, then denuclearization; the path to unification is through human rights.

Tough words on a scary problem.

Not a good start to any day. My thoughts are with those lost last night in this tragedy.

Be safe. FIN

Mark Hertling, “Using Military Jets for Deportations is an Ugly, Wasteful Spectacle”, TheBulwark.com, 29 January 2025, retrieved at https://www.thebulwark.com/p/military-jets-deportations-ugly-wasteful-spectacle

Jake Shindel, “American Airlines plane collides with military helicopter near Reagan National Airport”, wbaltv.com, 30 January 2025, retrieved athttps://www.wbaltv.com/article/plane-crash-reagan-airport-washington-dc/63611588?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%20-%20Local%20Breaking%20News&utm_source=679b20a751f6a3e1e9333a9105dabcf9&brzu=1a56adafe15206994f3e0594d2467a0c705ed9d7492881e7ff850723f2ad46ad&lctg=667327eedca31a0057e8f6c9&email_trigger=drcynthiawatson@gmail.com