The United States is likely to lose service members by the thousands each day in warfare of the future if the Air Force does not start “replacing its decrepit fleet of tankers” pronto, asserts Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. Thompson sees the cargo hauling issue (see above) for the KC-X as one that “could be a show stopper.”
Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the director of the Pentagon’s Golden Dome program, warned that without the Defense Department’s $350 billion reconciliation request, the homeland missile defense effort is in dire straits.