Responding to questioning by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, the Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Michael Moseley, acknowledged that a new long-range strike platform is “a long time” away. Hunter believes the Air Force move to retire 38 B-52s comes down to money not a desire to eliminate non-performers. His concern, said Hunter, is that “the strength of [the Air Force’s] argument is also the weakness of [its] argument” because the service plans to eliminate its attrition reserve based on the rationale that the B-52s are becoming more vulnerable. Hunter maintains, “We may be at the point where we simply have to get more money if we’re going to modernize.”
The Air Force budget would grow to $234 billion while Space Force spending would shrink to $26 billion under the White House's yearly ask.