Driving the Pentagon’s BRAC proposals to eliminate a number of Air National Guard flying units around the country is one basic fact: Budget cuts and aging aircraft mean there will be fewer airframes overall in years ahead. In the past, as USAF cut the number of active flying squadrons, it left the number of reserve units untouched, cutting airframes-per-unit instead. That “salami-slicing approach,” Maj. Gen. Gary Heckman told the BRAC commission last Thursday, will lead, for example, to a typical reserve squadron of only 11 F-16s by 2011. That, he said, is “less than half the optimum size.” By 2017, the numbers get worse: seven per unit.
Navy CCA Program’s Shape Coming into Focus
Oct. 17, 2025
In announcing its Navy Collaborative Combat Aircraft contract, General Atomics has provided some clues as to where the service is heading with its version of an armed, autonomous fighter escort. It will likely be quite different from the Air Force version.
