Running on Empty

<p>By 1999 the total active United States Air Force fighter wing equivalents will have shrunk from 24 to 13 in only ten years. The declining defense budget means painful force structure decisions lie ahead. Even as funds are drying up the armed forces are being called upon to execute contingencies in places such as Haiti Somalia Liberia and Bosnia. The future appears very busy for Air Force rescue units as well. According to Strategic Assessment 1996--Instruments of U.S. Power by the National Defense University and the Institute for National Strategic Studies ...U.S. armed forces will most likely be called upon to engage in numerous evacuation and rescue missions for Westerners over the next quarter of a century. It goes on to predict The rescue of U.S. military personnel under combat conditions particularly downed flight crews will also continue to be carried out on a fairly frequent basis. Ultimately it concludes The practice by certain societies of abusing U.S. military prisoners to put psychological pressure on the U.S. government and public will only make such rescue operations more imperative. To accomplish these long-range operations USAF rescue helicopters rely greatly on aerial refueling from HC-130 tanker aircraft.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>