WORLD: Budget: Air Force Gets More; Space Force Gets Cut; Shrinking Aircraft Inventory.
Budget
A collection of quotes on airpower, space power, and national security issues.
The Space Force is ramping up its investment in domain awareness to stay ahead in the increasingly contested space environment, and Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman described the effort as essential to his “Competitive Endurance” theory meant to guide the entire service.
Beyond the Air Force's $188.1 billion budget request for fiscal year 2025, its unfunded priorities list of things it would like to have if Congress is willing to give more includes money for spare parts, exercises, readiness, and military construction.
The final version of the fiscal 2024 appropriations bill includes three additional F-35As for the Air Force, along with a hefty amount for additional engine spares, even though the extra jets didn't appear on USAF’s Unfunded Priorities List.
The Department of the Air Force’s plans to “reoptimize for great power competition” have gotten a skeptical reception in Congress, as lawmakers are asking for more information before any changes go into effect and asking for an audit of the decision-making process.
The Air Force will extend development of the AGM-181A Long-Range Stand-Off missile by a year, possibly to comply with budget reductions from the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The Space Force is expanding the scope of its upcoming mission to launch a satellite on 24 hours’ notice—and hopes to declare initial operational capability for the effort, dubbed “Tactically Responsive Space,” in fiscal 2025.
New recommendations arguing for more Pentagon flexibility to reprogram funds are a “terrible” idea, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said, arguing that the overrun on the Sentinel ICBM proves the Pentagon can’t be trusted with such authority.