Ten years from now, USAF’s key competencies will include airlift and aerial refueling, domain control, global strike, and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance, according to Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. “Domain control” is the ability to exert control not only in the air and space realms, but “to some extent, cyberspace,” thereby allowing joint forces to operate “freely and without difficulty from adversary actions,” said Schwartz during his appearance on This Week in Defense News, a CBS TV new show, Sept. 5. He underscored the importance of the Air Force’s global strike capability, which, as he put it, enables the United States to keep “targets, wherever they may be on the planet, at risk,” while keeping ahead of advances in potential adversaries’ air defenses.
The Air Force is seeking funding to let its pilots fly a little more than 1.1 million hours in fiscal 2027, which would be the most in about four years. But even if Airmen actually do fly all 1.1 million hours, it would still be short of the 1.3 million…