Rumsfeld likely to scale back jet patrols

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld indicated Sunday he probably will scale back the continuous fighter jet patrols over U.S. cities.\nHe raised the possibility of tying the intensity of the patrols to different levels of threats against the U.S., as assessed by the government. \n"My personal view has been that what we need to do is what we have always done historically, and that's to have different threat levels. And as we see changes in the threat condition, adjust up or down," Rumsfeld said. \n"We have been at a relatively high threat level for some period of time, which has been appropriate given the threat information that I read every day," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." \nThe Air Force's civilian leader told The Associated Press last week that he wants to end the post-Sept. 11 the current 24-hour, 7-day-a-week patrols and instead leave fighters on "strip alert" at airfields, ready to launch in case of emergency. \n"What we need to do is get gradations of threat conditions and be able to move them up and down, depending on our best judgment and hope we're right." \nThe patrols are tying up about 265 airplanes -- mostly fighters, refuelers and radar planes -- and about 12,000 airmen, Air Force Secretary James Roche said in the Associated Press interview. \nThat compares with 14,000 Air Force personnel committed to the war in Afghanistan, he said, making the Air Force the only service with a large-scale commitment to both fronts in the war on terrorism. \nRumsfeld said it was his hope "that the threat condition will be such that we will not need to maintain that level of combat air patrols…and we will be able to reduce the stress that's been put on the force and reduce the cost to the American taxpayer"