earned a bachelor of laws degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1959. Before beginning his government career, he was associated with the law firm of Keogh, Carey and Costello in Washington, D.C.

He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association; American Bar Association; Federal Bar Association; Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity; Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science Fraternity; Marine Corps Reserve Officers Association; former member of the Board of Visitors, US Naval Academy (presidential appointment); and was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1964.

Mr. Rourke is married to the former Judith Anne Muller of New York City. They have three children: Mrs. Patricia Ogden of Virginia Beach, Virginia; Elizabeth and Mary, both at home in Annapolis, Maryland.

Mr. CHAPPELL. The committee is also pleased to again receive expert testimony from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Charles Gabriel. We commend you for the fine job you are doing.

Gentlemen, the Air Force's budget continues to grow at a rapid rate. In your fiscal year 1987 budget, the Air Force is requesting budget authority of $101.5 billion. This is an increase of about $10 billion, or approximately 11 percent, from the amount appropriated a few months ago as adjusted by the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation, which I understand you fellows really like very much.

The committee commends the Air Force for following the congressional lead and including funds in its budget to conduct a competition for the procurement of fighter aircraft for the continental air defense mission. The committee is also pleased that the Air Force has budgeted procurement funds for the Civil Air Patrol. However, the committee has concerns about other Air Force funding priorities.

The Air Force continues to devote a larger portion of funding to its investment appropriations-that is, procurement and RDT&E— rather than to the operating appropriations which are crucial to achieving the readiness and staying power of our combat forces. Only about 45 percent of the 1987 budget request is for such operating appropriations.

On the other hand, the largest growth is programmed for the RDT&E account where an increase of 32 percent-over $4 billion— is proposed.

The committee notes that the Air Force is proposing to buy 30 more F-16 aircraft this year, while proposing to reduce aircraft spares by $2.6 billion, aircraft modifications by $1.4 billion, and common ground equipment by $.6 billion compared to the 1987 estimates contained in last year's budget to Congress.

Long overdue trainer aircraft and rescue helicopter replacement programs have been sacrificed with no viable alternatives proposed or funded to satisfy well documented operational and safety requirements. Yet the Air Force proposes to buy 258 more fighter aircraft in fiscal years 1987 to 1991 than was presented to Congress in last year's budget. The committee wonders how the Air Force can afford to buy 258 aircraft whose unit cost is three to five times more than the urgently needed trainer and rescue aircraft which are claimed to be "unaffordable."

Today, the committee intends to discuss the status of a number of important Air Force programs as well as management policies. This morning's hearing will be open. This afternoon's hearing will be closed, pursuant to a motion duly made and passed in open session in order that classified material may be discussed.

Gentlemen, please summarize your statements for us. They will be placed in the record in their entirety.

Secretary Rourke?

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF SECRETARY ROURKE

Secretary ROURKE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for having us here today. I will ask that my entire statement be placed in the record at this point.

I have a brief statement to make to be followed by General Gabriel.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to begin by expressing to you and to your distinguished colleagues on this committee my appreciation for your support of the nation's defense needs and the Air Force. Though we have fought on occasion in this room, I, sitting behind Secretary Weinberger and General Gabriel sitting in his own capacity, have fought diligently for the same kinds of national security needs that we all believe in. But, it has always been a fair fight. You have been gracious and receptive to the arguments of the Air Force and for that we thank you.

I would like to report, Mr. Chairman, that I am extraordinarily proud and pleased at the condition the Air Force is in today. It can do more; it can do it better and with better results than ever before. This fact bears testimony to the support of this committee, as I have indicated, of this Congress, and of the American people.

On behalf of the President and Secretary Weinberger, I want to thank you, your colleagues, your staffs, and even Congressman Young who has been extraordinarily helpful to this committee and to us.

We are facing difficult times, Mr. Chairman. That is probably the understatement of the year, given the President's statement last night in some of the media, and congressional reactions to his statement. However, General Gabriel has been known to be hardheaded, and I am Irish, so the combination will create a duality of opposition and drive for our Air Force interests and needs.

I think we will be arguing about priorities throughout the year, about various programs, but I know we are all dedicated to that common goal. Legitimate concerns about the deficit and concerns about the potential slowing of this administration's restoration of our military strength means we will find ourselves agonizing over difficult choices. I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Air Force programs. Your questions are the most important part of our appearance.

THE THREAT AND THE DEFICIT

Three items, if I may. First I would never pass up an opportunity to discuss the threat.

I know you have heard so much about the threat. I won't characterize the manner in which such information has been received from Secretary Weinberger, but he has been undaunted in his presentation of the threat in many forums and through many mechanisms. The threat has been viewed by some as being overstated. We certainly don't view it that way; in many respects we view it as understated.

Secretary Weinberger, General Gabriel, I, and others and many members of this committee have the unpleasant task to receive indications of what the other side is doing. Our nights would be far more restful and our days perhaps more peaceful if we didn't have that daily opportunity to see what the other side is doing and how they are progressing in terms of their military buildup.

After all is said and done, from advocates and proponents of the current levels of spending, the fact of the threat is not diminished. We can argue about the impacts of deficits on the economy and social fabric pro and con, but it does not change the fact that the Soviet Union does not use the size of our deficit to size its armed forces.

That is not to say that we haven't progressed over the past five years in rebuilding the armed forces to meet the threat. We won't debate who is the father or mother of our building, was it instituted at the tail end of the previous Administration or did nothing happen under the sun until this Administration came in.

Suffice it to say all dedicated Americans concerned about the peace and national security of their country did start to pull together in the last five, six or seven years to do something about the rising Soviet threat, I think Democrats and Republicans can take credit for a reversal of the negative trend on which we were going.

READINESS

Our readiness is up, Mr. Chairman. Now we can sustain our forces longer in combat and move them more quickly. We have newer and more accurate weapon systems. However impressive this progress is compared to where we started five years ago, it is still insufficient.

It is so difficult to stay with my prepared summary remarks in view of the reaction in some quarters to the President's sincere, dedicated presentation last night. I think we share an understanding of the severe economic problems we face; Chairman Addabbo has brought this to our attention not in the last six months, but for the last five years. He is a tireless fighter for socioeconomic problems. He is dedicated to improving our military capability, albeit in slightly different fashion and from a different approach perhaps than this Administration on many subjects. In many others, he has been four-square with this Administration, a position for which we are deeply indebted to you.

It becomes increasingly clear, however, that the Soviet Union is developing a war-fighting potential far beyond any conceivable threat to their country. Unfortunately, as the deficit has risen so has the threat. That is why we have balanced the Air Force program as we have to meet the level of threat. We have been prudent in our proposals, in assuring that we make the best possible use of our acquisition dollars.

DEDICATION OF AIR FORCE PEOPLE

I would like to highlight the high quality and dedication of our Air Force people. It is no secret to that I have been Secretary of the Air Force for only three short months and it will not surprise you either that I have done considerable traveling during that

three-month period to many bases in the continental United States I can tell you that I am enormously proud of the quality and the performance of our blue-suited people and the civilians who work for the Department of the Air Force. They are tough, dedicated, disciplined, well trained, they know their job and they are going to stick with this program.

Without question the greatest strength of our Air Force does lie in the high quality of our people. In terms of quality, as you heard the President's remarks last night and as he alluded to the quality of the people in our services generally, I'd like to add a word of extra pride for those in the Air Force who rank even higher than the general averages to which the President referred last night.

EDUCATION LEVELS OF AIR FORCE PERSONNEL

Almost 982 percent of our enlisted personnel are high school graduates and about half have 15 or more semester hours of college. They are the kind of people I think we need to maintain and repair our complex weapon systems as we incorporate advanced technology into new aircraft and weapons. Our officer corps is equally impressive; almost half of all of our officers from second lieutenant through four-star general have graduate degrees. Among general officers, the figure is even higher, almost 85 per

cent.

We simply cannot afford to lose large numbers of those who are highly skilled, highly motivated and dedicated. It would be prohibitively expensive to do so and though retention trends do not indicate a developing hemorrhage, the danger is there if our people see their promotions, pay and retirement programs threatened.

General Gabriel watches that very, very carefully as do I and Secretary Weinberger, and I know the President does. We don't want those trends to start moving in another direction.

ACQUISITION POLICIES

The third item is on our acquisition policies and our acquisition strategy. We know full well, Mr. Chairman, that should we lose, or continue to witness the erosion of the support of the American people and through the Congress as their elected representatives, for the credibility of our acquisition process, we know we are in deep trouble.

We must point with some degree of understanding to the over 870,000 kinds of items in our supply system alone. We think we have been vigorously attacking procurement inefficiencies in a number of areas. One of our most powerful tools is the national force of the competitive market.

In the contract area alone, some 87 percent of initial contracts and follow-on contracts are now the subject of competitive bids. Through our competition advocate corps, through our other experts who have devoted themselves full time to the procurement process and the acquisition cycle, we have some 1,500 to 1,600 people now who do nothing but concentrate on the critical importance of competition in both initial areas and in breaking out spare parts to make sure that competition helps reduce the dollar cost of our weapon systems.

In sum, less than 13 percent our procurement dollars have been awarded sole source.

RELIABILITY AND MAINTAINABILITY

Mr. Chairman, another area that I will touch on and just summarize from my brief statement is the importance of reliability and maintainability.

General Gabriel together with my predecessor, Secretary Orr, made this a keystone of their management of Air Force's resources. On February 1, 1985, they initiated a program known as R&M 2000, the Reliability and Maintainability program. The function and purpose was to place reliability and maintainability on an equal footing with performance, cost and schedule when we buy new weapon systems, to be sure our systems malfunction less often and when they do to be sure they can be fixed easier and faster. I see many of our contractors around the room with whom we have worked I must tell you that I am a great fan of so many of the people that we have worked with not for 3 months, not for 5 years, but for 27 years. I must tell you in all sincerity that I think 99 percent of them are dedicated, are honest, are disciplined in the application of their resources, and are disciplined in the application of the laws as they know them to be. They are as enthusiastic as I am and as you are to root out the small percentage of contractors with whom we deal on a steadily decreasing basis, the rascals who have tarred the good names of many of our contractors, who have tarred the name of the Department of Defense and who have indeed cost us seriously in the area of credibility with the Congress and with the American people.

So our Inspector General at the Department of Defense and the IG of the Air Force have full license with my office's support and General Gabriel and Secretary Weinberger and the President to root out that limited number of rascals who are costing the national security program a great deal, not only in the support of the American people, but in hardware.

CONCLUSION

Finally, Mr. Chairman, I will summarize by saying there is a renewed sense of cost awareness in the Air Force. We do care about every dollar we spend and we will continue to look for better ways to acquire, manage and maintain the assets entrusted to us by the American taxpayer.

Let me conclude by saying that fiscal year 1987, and today will be a good start on that program, will be very challenging for the Air Force. Fiscal constraint has required us to make tough decisions. We believe that the balanced approach we have developed will continue the expansion and modernization of our forces. We face milestones in all elements. Perhaps most important we must not renege on the promises we have made to our Air Force Service people who make it all work and who are our most valuable resource and do help us pull it together.

We ask again for the support that you have given us in the past. We pledge to you our cooperation in facing the global threat in an intelligent, responsible and fiscally restrained way.