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.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.