The top two Air Force leaders briefed reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday on some QDR issues, reprising much of what we’ve already reported. (See DR 12/12/05) One exception is that USAF plans to procure a total of 183 new F-22 Raptors, not 185 as we were told earlier. The plan, according to Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, includes keeping the F-22 production line going until 2010. He called it a “national imperative” to keep a fifth generation fighter line warm until the next one (the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) cranks up.
The Space Force on April 15 released two highly anticipated future-casting documents that describe what the service expects the space environment will look like in the year 2040 and lay out the force structure it thinks it will need to operate in that environment.