NORFOLK, Va., - The National Guard is uniquely poised to be part of the solution to many of DoD’s future budget woes, the National Guard’s top officer told an audience here at the Joint Warfighting Conference May 13.
“Secretary (of Defense Robert) Gates has spoken very loud and very clear that our defense budget is going to have to come down, maybe considerably, over the next several years,” said Air Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau. “We in the Department of Defense are going to have to look very seriously at what we can afford to do and how we meet the commitments of our combatant commanders in the future.”
McKinley said difficult decisions will have to be made, and “I think we are going to be part of that solution. And we’re going to have to take our share of the (cuts) and maintain an effective force that can continue for years to come.”
The Guard’s strength is a mostly part-time force with full-time capabilities.
“We do have an advantage, that in the days when a Soldier or Airmen (in the Guard) is not mobilized or not volunteering for duty, those are days when you don’t pay that Soldier,” McKinley said. “You have the advantage of having that Soldier or Airmen who can integrate as needed and it’s not costing the nation for that service. We get paid for the service that we perform.”
Despite its cost-effectiveness, the Guard will continue to see changes, such as integrating with active duty components to share equipment and resources. An example of this construct exists at Langley Air Force Base, Va., where Airmen from the Virginia Air National Guard have integrated with the 1st Fighter Squadron to fly the F-22 Raptor.
“We know that we are not going to replace aircraft one for one,” said McKinley. “We know we are going to have to come up with new models, so that we can share the equipment so we can all remain trained on that equipment. Those are new paradigms that we in leadership are going to have to pursue.”
McKinley said the Guard will continue to be at the forefront of operational needs, rather than reverting back to an often under-funded and under-equipped strategic reserve.
“(Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn) said that the National Guard must maintain its role as a full-spectrum force,” he said. “I think that is an acknowledgement that over the last eight-and-a-half, almost nine, years of kinetic operations overseas has given the National Guard a fighting spirit and a capability that, quite possibly, they haven’t had since Korea.”
That fighting spirit can be seen in some of the niche missions the Guard has filled overseas, such as the Agri-business Development Teams that draw on civilian agriculture experience that Guardmembers may possess, said McKinley.
“These agri-business experts come in and try and turn the Afghan countryside back into what it was at one time, which was a breadbasket,” he said. “It has potential beyond belief, but, because of decades of war (many Afghan farmers) have lost the skill sets to grow their own crops. Trading in poppies for grapes is a tough choice, and it doesn’t happen overnight.”
McKinley said that as operations continue to shift to Afghanistan, the Guard will again fill the niche missions as well as more traditional operational roles there.
Being able to provide that capability as a full-spectrum force has had associated costs. “Full-spectrum doesn’t come easy,” said McKinley. “With full-spectrum there is a burden and cost, and we shed blood alongside our active component counterparts. We’ve paid in blood … to become a National Guard that is deemed today by others to be a full-spectrum force.”
In the next five years, the Guard will see an indefinite commitment to those operational needs, but with a greater sense of stability, McKinley said.
“We believe that we can have 55,000 to 60,000 Army Guard Soldiers in the Army force generation cycle indefinitely if we build in rotation times and mobility times, much like our United States Air Force has done with our aircraft,” said McKinley. “That is giving families and employers predictability and stability and lead time to those citizen-Soldiers and Airmen, so they can continue to contribute at the national level.”
It will also allow the Guard to be able to respond in its role responding to disasters and other missions at home.
“Governors can call out the National Guard in state active duty status and can use those National Guard Airmen and Soldiers for augmentation of their security forces to help during crisis like we’ve seen recently in the Oklahoma tornados, the Nashville floods and we’re even putting Guard members on orders to help with the Gulf oil (spill),” said McKinley.
Along with their warfighting skills, Guardmembers will need to continue to hone those homeland response skills.
“The American public demands that we be there, we be there quickly with the right equipment, with the right formations, with the right leadership and we’re not arguing about who is in charge when we show up and we get it done,” said McKinley.
“We will continue to work with our Army and Air Force to provide the combat forces that the combatant commanders need. And, we are an eager and willing to partner with our allies, with our state partners, with our inter-agency players to make sure that the National Guard of the 21st century is ready, is capable, is accessible, is adaptable and is affordable.”