Asked what he needs in order to deliver future long-range strike, General Keys’ pithy reply—which generated much laughter from the AFA audience—was “money.” The more expansive answer was this: He wants something that is “responsive, persistent, and precise.” To be “responsive,” the system does not have to be a super-fast, hypersonic aircraft, he added. It could be a subsonic but hyper-stealthy platform that orbits over a target area “invisibly” until it gets the order to release a certain type of weapon. That kind of system, said Keys, would be truly responsive because it would be just a “bomb’s time-of-flight away” from inflicting damage. “I think it looks like a B-2 or a B-3,” he said, and, “in my personal view, unmanned.”
Air Force depots are not typically meant for quick repair jobs, but during Operation Epic Fury, the service moved some of its stateside heavy maintenance capability forward to fix battle-damaged aircraft closer to the fight.
