On Fox, McInerney criticizes Gates for proposed F-22 replacement without noting ties to aircraft subcontractor
SUMMARY: Fox News military analyst Tom McInerney criticized the Obama administration's decision to procure only four more F-22 fighters, but at no point was it disclosed during his appearance that McInerney has served as a consultant for Northrop Grumman Corp., a major subcontractor on the F-22.
During the April 25 edition of Fox News' America's News HQ, Fox military analyst and retired Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney criticized the Obama administration's decision to procure only four more F-22 fighters and praised the aircraft as "the dominant air superiority fighter." However, neither McInerney nor co-host Jamie Colby disclosed that McInerney has reportedly served as a consultant for the Northrop Grumman Corp., which is a major subcontractor on the F-22.
McInerney's Humanevents.com bio -- he has written several articles for the magazine -- states that he "consults for Northrop Grumman on the KC 45 program." On the March 10, 2008, edition of Fox News' Special Report, correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported that "McInerney consults for Northrop Grumman." Also, an August 1, 2008, C4ISR Journal op-ed by McInerney identified him as "a consultant to Northrop Grumman."
McInerney has also recently consulted for defense contractor Cobham plc, which in March 2006 announced that its subsidiary Sargent Fletcher Inc. had been awarded contracts from Lockheed Martin Corp. "worth more than US$8m for its 600 gallon external fuel tanks for the F-22 Raptor jet aircraft." According to Sargent Fletcher's website, the company is "currently under contract to Lockheed Martin for the Low-Rate Initial Production of a new 600-gallon external fuel tank for the F/A-22 fighter." In a June 4, 2008, press release, Cobham announced McInerney's nomination to the board of Cobham North America as one of "three senior 'Outside Directors,' " who, with the approval of the U.S. government, would "provide assurance on security matters and strategic guidance on defence and market trends." According to the press release, McInerney's nomination was a part of Cobham's purchase of another defense contractor, SPARTA Inc.
McInerney was featured in the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times exposé by David Barstow that detailed the connections between numerous media military analysts, the Pentagon, and the defense industry. In the article, Barstow reported that McInerney "sits on the boards of several military contractors, including Nortel Government Solutions, a supplier of communication networks." The article also reported that the Pentagon helped McInerney and another Fox military analyst "write an opinion article for The Wall Street Journal defending [former Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld" and that, in an apparently separate case, McInerney "wrote to the Pentagon after receiving fresh talking points in late 2006," stating, "Good work. ... We will use it."
McInerney also criticized Gates on America's News HQ because he "wants to replace [the F-22] with the F-35, which the production line has really not started yet." Northrup Grumman is "a principal subcontractor on an F-35 industry team led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics" and "plays a critical role in the development and production of the F-35 weapon system."
From the March 10, 2008, edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
GRIFFIN: Democrats are blaming Republican Senator John McCain for siding against Boeing five years ago when he demanded an open competition and not a single-source contract to lease refueling tankers from Boeing.
A whistleblower blew the lid off the original deal, and an Air Force procurement officer, Darleen Druyun, went to jail for nine months for attempting to win jobs for her family from Boeing.
McCAIN: I intervened in a process that was clearly corrupt. That's why people went to jail. That's why the Government Accountability Office said that I saved the taxpayers over $6 billion.
McINERNEY: We are now going to buy 179 tankers for the price we were going to lease 100 tankers. So all Senator McCain saw -- put in was a competitive program.
GRIFFIN: McInerney consults for Northrop Grumman and says Airbus will add tens of thousands of jobs to the U.S. economy because it is building four factories in Alabama to refit the Airbus 330s. Other states are building the avionics.
From the April 25 edition of Fox News' America's News HQ:
COLBY: Lieutenant General Tom McInerney is a retired member of the United States Air Force and a favorite Fox News military analyst -- great to see you, sir.
McINERNEY: Hi, Jamie. How are you?
COLBY: I'm doing great. But you know how much I worry about our troops, and I worry about them having what they need to complete the mission at hand. Does Secretary Gates have it right?
McINERNEY: Unfortunately, he does not, Jamie. And I think it needs a lot more analysis than what he did and changed our requirements that the joint requirements operations council had put out. He made a lot of very significant changes without getting the military fully behind him. And I can assure you that in the Pentagon and out in the field, for all services, we have major problems, what he has done, and he has not coordinated it.
COLBY: Tell me, Lieutenant General McInerney, about the front lines -- the troops that are in harm's way. How do they feel? What have you heard?
McINERNEY: Well, let's take the F-22, because it's the easiest one. He wants to cancel that procurement. The fact is is the F-22 is the dominant air superiority fighter. It flies at 60,000 feet at 1.6 mach. He wants to replace it with the F-35, which the production line has really not started yet. And he wants to cap it at 186 or 187 aircraft.
Well, that means you only have 100 airplanes or two fighter wings for operational units -- as we call combat coded. We would not have been able to conduct Operation Iraqi Freedom nor Operation Northern Watch or Southern Watch with only 100 F-22s with the threat coming for 30 years. Now, I don't know where Secretary Gates gets the vision to look out 30 years.
COLBY: Let me ask you about the vision --
McINERNEY: And so that's one example.
His comments wouldn't stand in the first place. The idea that bigger, better, faster, stronger weapons is going to win the war in Iraq OR Afghanistan is silly. "Hearts and minds" has been made into a cliche because it fits the situation precisely. Dropping more bombs with the F-22 or the F-15 or the A-10 or a Cesna is not going to win that war. Besides, the F-22's primary job is air-superiority. This has nothing to do with the war in Iraq and has everything to do with the Russians or the Chinese.
This is just the military-industrial complex rolling around in the sack with the media-industrial complex...again.
"I'm doing great. But you know how much I worry about our troops, and I worry about them having what they need to complete the mission at hand."
They weren't worried about the Bush administration not giving soldiers adequate body armor or the plenty of times when soldiers were getting electricuted WHILE TAKING A SHOWER due to faulty wiring which the administration kept as contractors though the many complaints and reported incidents.
If you look in history wars are not one by numbers or power alone. Wars are won with strategy and being prepared for the situation and not a "who has the biggest stick/cool stuff contest"
This is a lie. Please show us a link where a soldier went into battle with inadequate body armor. This is the same body armor that soldiers were sent into battle with since Vietnam. Not one soldier, sailor, or marine went into a combat zone without BA.
"Please show us a link where a soldier went into battle with inadequate body armor."
USA Today:
Both the sergeant and his wife are serving in Iraq, and both have seen action. But, like thousands of U.S. soldiers, his wife was not given the vital ceramic plates for her Kevlar Interceptor vest to protect her from bullet wounds. Instead, he said, she had to scavenge to find plates left behind by Iraqi soldiers — plates of inferior quality that do not properly fit her vest.
The Pentagon confirms that at least 40,000 of the 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq don't have basic Kevlar Interceptor vests or the ceramic plates needed for full protection.
Newsday:
Marine commanders requested improvements to side armor last June, but few of the inserts have made it to the field. That's prompted criticism from Senate Democrats, including Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who says hundreds of soldiers may have died needlessly as a result of inadequate armor.
NYT:
A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor.
Once again you're confusing INTERCEPTOR vests and FLAK vests.
They are not the same thing. When the war broke out the Interceptor vests were new and usually only SOF had access to them. The regular Army were issued Flak vests. NOT ONE SOLDIER went into battle without body armor.
The lefts argument is intellectually dishonest on this. I don't remember your outrage during Bosnia and Kosovo over body armor?
Those vests also were not approved and the command threatened UCMJ action if soldiers used the locally purchased vests.
I didn't agree with it then, but that is the reality of Army bureaucracy.