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 July 17, 2008 POGO Letter to DoD Secretary Robert Gates regarding extravagant “Senior Leader In-Transit Comfort Capsules” |
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July 17, 2008 The Honorable Robert M. Gates Secretary 1000 Defense Pentagon As you well know, in a time of war, it is critical for senior officials to visibly prioritize the needs of the men and women on the frontline because it is the right thing to do and for reasons of morale. Yet an egregious failure of leadership has come to our attention that involves breathtaking extravagance when every dollar needs to be wisely spent in a time of war. At a cost of millions of dollars, the highest levels of the Air Force have emphasized two little-known programs to build “world-class” luxury aircraft accommodations for military and senior civilian leaders under the justification of a “deficiency gap.” These accommodations do not provide any additional operational capabilities (e.g. communications advantages) beyond those currently existing, according to contract documents. Funding for these programs was requested in the recently passed Global War On Terrorism (GWOT) supplemental. A draft proposal for these accommodations tellingly states that these accommodations were even at one point called “Senior Leader In-Transit Comfort Capsules” (italics added) or SLICCs. “Comfort” was dropped in favor of “Conference,” as you can see from the track changes in a print out of the Word document. [Appendix A] SLICCs are two connected chambers with first class amenities on a pallet that can be loaded onto a C-17, KC-10, C-130 and KC-X aircraft. These SLICCs are modeled on two existing “Steel Eagles” which are currently used for the most senior Pentagon officials (and are replacing the previous two “Silver Bullets” which are customized Airstream trailers). A related program is the Senior Leader Intransit Pallet” (SLIP). [Appendix B] While General Duncan McNabb was head of the Air Mobility Command, he presided over a decision to extend the Steel Eagle-style privileges to a far-wider range of military and senior civilian leaders and intended to purchase up to ten SLICCs – a substantial expansion of high-end transport accommodations. The first prototype SLICC has been funded. Although Gen. McNabb created an initial requirement for 10 SLICCs, the requirement has been reduced to two to three SLICCs. The Air Force requested $16 million in the recently passed GWOT supplemental to fund the additional SLICCs, according to a June 2008 Air Force briefing on the program. Of course, the Global War On Terror (GWOT) supplemental is meant to be directly used to fund troops involved in the current conflicts abroad. [Appendix B] Gen. McNabb not only was the commander of Air Mobility Command when the SLICC and SLIP program were initiated, but was involved in the original leather and carpet color and material choices. [Appendix C] Internal Air Force emails make it clear that the SLICC’s level of luxury is the overriding concern of much of the Air Force leadership. For example, in one email it states, “Gen [Robert H.] McMahon’s concern is so significant that we need assurance by the end of the week from AFRL [Air Force Research Laboratory] that the SLICC will be ‘World class’ inside. While we know the requirements document says ‘business class’, we all know there are levels of that.” [Appendix D] This emphasis on luxury drew disagreement within the Air Mobility Command. “In Mar 07, Gen McMahon requested A4 [Air Mobility Command’s Logistics Directorate] take over the acquisition effort when he could not get support from A5 [AMC’s Plans and Programs Directorate] for updates and cooperation on making the equipment ‘world class’ which was one of his goals,” according to an Air Force email. [Appendix C] The “world class” emphasis entailed the costly aesthetic redesign of the interior of an already existing system known as Steel Eagle. Even before the redesign, the capabilities document for the SLICC (known also as the “Senior Official Work and Rest Capsule” and the “DV Capsule”) contains a detailed list of amenities required such as:
According to another email this was all known at the highest levels of the Air Force: “the SLICC was briefed again this weekend to CSAF [Chief of Staff of the Air Force] and that the expectation was high.” As you know, at the time, the Chief of Staff was T. Michael Buzz Moseley. [Appendix D] Appendix B: Air Force SLICC and SLIP PowerPoint, June 26, 2008. Appendix C: Emails Regarding SLIP Update. Appendix D: Emails Regarding “World Class” SLICC. Appendix E: SLIP Modification Proposal. Appendix F: SLICC/SLIP Financial Update.
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