Quote:
Originally Posted by Broadsword2004
I remember reading some time in the past, although I forget where, that this thinking about the future of warfare not requiring a conventional army was all the rage among the Air Force during much of the Cold War. That "officially," the Air Force's job was to back up the Army, but that the Air Force brass viewed future wars as something that was going to be high-tech and nuclear and as such rendering conventional armies obsolete. The Army grew so dissatisfied with the Air Force's lack of support that it looked into getting its own fixed-wing aircraft, which then led to the Air Force crying foul, which I believe is what then led to the Army developing the Apache attack helicopter.
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IMHO you are completely off base on this. I worked at TRANSCOM when this was going down. First of all, when TRANSCOM did its mobility study, army brass could not point to ONE instance in which the air force did not provide the support requested with the current platforms in service. Several mobility studies were done that supported that conclusion.
Additionally, when the aircraft were approved, Gen Schwartz said he didn't care who owned them, as long as they were taskable within theater for the COCOM to use as needed, not just for army troops.
I know several people on here will probably disagree with what I just wrote, but the Army Brass could not articulate their angst with C-130/C-130J support. That may not be true of the ground soldier, but it certainly was with the brass.