The Air Force’s new penetrating bomber program fulfills a service “core competency” and must be acquired, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Philip Breedlove said Wednesday. Speaking in Arlington, Va., courtesy of AFA’s Mitchell Institute, Breedlove said the Air Force must continue to have the ability to strike any target on the globe from the air. It’s “a valuable deterrent, even in a strictly conventional role,” he said. “Long-range strike is a capability the nation currently depends on. We have used it well in . . . Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq. And we will continue to need its capability well into the future,” especially in anti-access, area-denial situations, he asserted. Breedlove’s remarks came less than a week after Marine Gen. James Cartwright, Joint Chiefs vice chairman, challenged the need for the bomber, arguing that it would be an exquisite platform affordable only in very small numbers. Continue
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. still “believes” in his mantra of “Accelerate Change or Lose”—and indicated the doctrinal changes it produced when he was Air Force Chief of Staff played a role in the service’s recent response to Iran’s aerial assault on Israel, he…