2 generals cut from jet
program for poor work

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

Two Air Force generals were cut from the Air Force's premier F/A-22 Raptor jet fighter production program this week because they failed to turn in "stellar performance," Air Force Secretary James Roche said yesterday in Honolulu.

However, the program shake-up, which also involved the dismissal of a civilian project manager after disclosures of a possible $690 million overrun, does not mean the stealth jet fighter program is in trouble, he said.

"It is at a critical phase," Roche said before leaving Hickam Air Force Base on his first trip to the island since taking office in June 2001. Roche will visit Air Force bases in Japan and South Korea, spending Thanksgiving at Kunsan Air Base in Korea.

Brig. Gen. William Jabour, F/A-22 program executive officer, and Brig. Gen. Mark Shackleford, systems program director, were replaced Monday, Roche said.

"If we don't get stellar performance, we replace people who are running things," he said.

Bob Rearden, who has headed the Lockheed program since 1999, was replaced yesterday by Ralph Heath, the executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics for operations.

Roche said the $43 billion program needs a boost.

As for the call-up of the Reserve and Air National Guard units for another war on Iraq, Roche said, no determination has been made on numbers or units.

"We're trying to think through how we would do this," Roche said. "It depends on the war plans chosen by the president and the secretary of defense. We are looking at various numbers of options as to how many reserves and guards would have to be called up."

Pentagon officials have already said they anticipate mobilizing about the same number of National Guard and Reserves -- about 250,000 -- called up during the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq.

None of Hawaii's nearly 6,000 Army or Air Guard personnel were placed on active duty during the Gulf War.

However, in the decade following the Gulf War, 1,300 Hawaii Air Guard jet fighter and tanker pilots and flight crews, security personnel, air traffic controllers, and communication and radar specialists have been deployed to Europe and Southwest Asia in continuing allied efforts against Iraq and the global war on terrorism.

Roche said he expects Hawaii Air Guard to continue to support the Air Force's efforts in the Pacific, especially KC-135 tanker pilots and crews who refuel bombers and jet fighters flying to Southwest Asia.

Roche was a corporate vice president of Northrop Grumman Corp. before taking his current post. A 23-year Navy veteran, he was a Democratic aide for the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1983 to 1984, and was a senior staffer for the Senate Intelligence Committee from 1979 to 1981.