The Air Force needs at least $20 billion more each year to fund necessary recapitalization efforts more efficiently and to sustain rising operations and maintenance costs, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told reporters at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington. It is not a new figure. Air Force leaders made this claim earlier this year after they rolled out the 2008 budget request. And, in April, Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, called the $20 billion figure a “useful mark on the wall,” but one he did not expect to get in the current budget climate.
A semi-autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone shot down an air-to-air target in a Dec. 8 test supported by the U.S. Air Force, a notable milestone in the development of the loyal wingman-type drones that will join the fleets of the USAF, other American services, and allies and adversaries.
