The commander of US Central Command Air Forces, Lt. Gen. Gary North, said in a statement that he worries “about the health of our aging fleet,” but the continued grounding of the F-15 fleet would not diminish airpower support to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The F-15E Strike Eagles in the theater are on ground alert. North said he expects the accident “investigation to get to the cause of the accident.” Unnamed officials have speculated that the F-15C that crashed last week came apart in flight.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
