Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, told lawmakers during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday that the Air Force simply cannot afford an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. He said it would cost “$2 billion that we don’t have.” Despite Congressional pressure last year to keep a second engine effort going, the Pentagon left it out of its 2008 budget request, and DOD officials continue to say the risk of having only one engine-maker outweighs the cost of two efforts. In earlier testimony Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne expressed a preference for the alternate engine, however he acknowledged Tuesday that the issue comes down to money—the budget is too tight.
Former AFCENT Commander Reflects on Lessons of Epic Fury
Sept. 13, 2026
Operation Epic Fury marked the U.S. military's largest air campaign in a generation, with strikes on 13,000 targets in Iran before the first in a series of shaky ceasefires began in April. Now, even as hostilities continue to flare up, Lt. Gen. Derek C. France sees several clear lessons that…
