Schoomaker likes USAF’s push to create more Battlefield Airmen that travel with ground troops and help mesh air operations with ground operations. Schoomaker said he saw some of these airmen in Iraq working with forward Army units and was impressed by their effectiveness. “[Air Force Chief of Staff Gen.] John Jumper is committed to building a thousand more battlefield airmen to populate our brigades,” said Schoomaker. “I want a continued drive to achieve this kind of interdependence and interoperability.”
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.
