By Marina Malenic
Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) would benefit from more CV-22 Osprey deliveries sooner and faster recapitalization of its overall fleet, the command’s top officer said last week.
“We have what we need to do what we’re doing,” Lt. Gen. Donald Wurster, chief of AFSOC, last week told an audience at the Air Force Association’s annual conference at National Harbor. However, Wurster said more vertical lift capability and replacement of aging aircraft would be useful for the types of missions the command takes on.
Wurster noted that special operations missions rely heavily on aging equipment. For example, there are eight AC-130H aircraft in service, according to Wurster, and that fleet has been flying since the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“That airplane really is old,” Wurster said. “A large portion of our C-130 fleet dates to Vietnam.”
Nonetheless, he noted that the aircraft maintain a high operational tempo because “everybody wants a gunship overhead.”
And because the AFSOC fleet is so small, the general said it’s important that each and every aircraft is airworthy at all times.
“When we do things, we’ll say, a couple of V-22s and a couple of [CH-130] Talons,” he said. “And every one of them has to take off for the mission to succeed.
“A big question is…should Special Operations Command, which is the first tool that is reached for a lot of the time, have forty-year-old airplanes?” he added. “Or should we recapitalize on a faster schedule?”
Wurster also said his command would benefit from more CV-22 Ospreys or some other vertical lift platform.
“The V-22 is coming on board,” he said. “We have seven but are looking forward to more as soon as possible.”