The service is looking forward, however, and wants to replace its three combat-loss fighters with F-35 Lightnings, not F-15s or F-16s. Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne explained in a briefing with reporters Thursday afternoon in Orlando that the service will get the new aircraft around 2010, and new purchases of Vipers or Eagles would come no faster. Further, the F-15s currently being built for Korea and the F-16s being produced for the United Arab Emirates are different—and more advanced—than those flown by USAF. No commonality is a no-no, as far as the Air Force is concerned. Meanwhile, said Moseley, spending the money on the F-35 stabilizes the production line and accelerates the test program, so buying them as war replacements “seems to make sense.”
If the Air Force is in line for a big budget bump from President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027, the head of Air Combat Command said he would make aircraft spare parts his top spending priority—but cautioned that more money to buy parts won’t equal a…
