Few know everything about what is in the latest Quadrennial Defense Review and the 2011 defense budget plan, but everybody seems to know something.

"There is a consensus in support of long-range strike [LRS, also referred to as next generation bomber]," a senior Pentagon scientific advisor says. Questions about whether it will be optionally manned and have a nuclear weapon capability are still undecided.

Prompt global strike by ballistic missiles armed with conventional explosives appears to have one powerful advocate: Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "It’s still alive primarily because of Cartwright’s support," the scientific advisor says.

"Cartwright is anti-bomber," a former Air Force chief of staff claims. "He thinks we can do the mission with standoff weapons and global strike ICBMs. He’s not thinking about penetrating platforms, eyes on the target and last-minute mission changes."

Despite the apparent support for LRS, advocates say they are unhappy with the lack of push for a new bomber. They contend that its delay is part of an overreaction to insurgency warfare needs.

The QDR is being described by some current and formerly inside critics as an unsubtle attempt to force an inadequate military force to fit into an even more inadequate defense budget. They say the combined blueprints for the next several years of defense spending will actually justify the dramatic announcements made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates last April.

"It will ratify what Gates told Congress last year, not what a thorough QDR analysis can validate," the former USAF chief says. "In particular, there is no force-sizing construct. That planning is missing and it is a major deficiency. Even if it’s hard to nail down the numbers, they are obligated to rationalize the force and the budget. How are they going to go before Congress and justify what they have proposed without matching the force to the threat and generating a set of scenarios to define it?"

But as with many issues, opinions are mixed. Officials like David Ochmanek, deputy assistant secretary of defense for force development, say it is incorrect to characterize Gates’ moves as focusing primarily on today’s fight. Indeed, Gates himself last year often said he was simply trying to shift the Pentagon’s planning a little more toward irregular or hybrid warfare, versus concentrating overwhelmingly on high-level state-on-state conflicts as has been the case historically.

Another area producing mixed reactions about its level of support in the new plans are electronic warfare (EW) and electronic attack (EA). Others note that the F-35 program will suffer as well.

"Production money is being sacrificed to fund development costs," the advisor says. "The number of aircraft being delayed and pushed to the right has so far been estimated at 100. But we’re now hearing that it’s going to be well above that."

A version of the USAF force structure expected to come out of the QDR is being circulated among some intelligence officials. It sets the structure at eight ISR wing equivalents, 29 airlift and air refueling wing equivalents, 10-11 theater strike wing equivalents (72 primary mission aircraft per wing equivalents), five LRS bomber wing equivalents, six air superiority wing equivalents (72 aircraft again), three command-and-control wing equivalents and 10 space and cyberspace wing equivalents.

"The structure is about right in total numbers if you count the homeland defense fighters," the advisor says. "But the aircraft won’t operate in those stovepipes. Force structure will resemble the big combined wings." Historical roles will go away, because the Lockheed Martin F-22 will be the best intelligence collector and processor in any battle, according to this analyst.

Meantime, the current USAF chief, Gen. Norton Schwartz, has indicated a way forward for the light-attack and light-mobility aircraft for partner nations will likely come out with the budget. And further deliberations over coalition operations also are likely to be included in the QDR, as well.

Elsewhere, military sources say two engine sets for E-8C Joint Stars will be bought and tested, with a fleet decision to come later. Funding for re-engining five or six aircraft that was in the budget expired Oct. 1 because it was not obligated by the Air Force.

And the C-130 Avionics Modernization Program is moving forward, according to service officials. The program’s fate was uncertain and seemed headed for cancellation -- intentional or not -- at one point last year.

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