Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. wants to neck down the Air Force's fighter inventory from seven fleets to four, and the F-22 is not on his short list. The extant seven-fleet mix of fighters will need to be reduced to “four, … plus one,” Brown said. The objective mix will include the A-10 “for a while;” the Next-Generation Air Dominance system; the F-35, “which will be the cornerstone” of the fleet; the F-15EX; and the F-16 or its successor. He did not mention the F-22 or the F-15E.

The fiscal 2022 Pentagon budget should be $753 billion, $38 more than the Biden administration's proposal of $715 billion, said Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia), ranking member of the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee. Wittman's proposal is an increase from the $731.3 billion Congress approved in total defense spending for 2021. A 3 percent inflation factor “takes us to $753" billion, Wittman said at the McAleese FY2022 Defense Programs Conference. At a separate event, House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Maryland) said many in his party want cuts in defense, with some Democrats calling for cuts of up to 10 percent.

The House of Representatives likely won’t get the 2021 defense policy bill on to the floor for a vote until as late as July, as the Biden administration has not yet released its proposed budget and is making a major infrastructure bill its main priority, a key lawmaker said May 12. Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Maryland), the vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee who serves on both the tactical air and land forces and emerging threats subcommittees, said lawmakers have called for the administration to “expedite” the delivery of the budget to start the process. However, the Democratic leadership have said the proposed American Rescue Plan should be up for a final vote before the August recess, and “if that happens, it will clearly happen before the defense authorization act,” Brown said.

Space and Missile Systems Center boss Lt. Gen. John F. Thompson, speaking May 12 during a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Space Power Forum, said strengthening ties with allies is increasingly important in both realizing “big-time” cost savings and speeding up the delivery of operational capability. In April, an SMC team went to Japan and “conducted successful interface verification testing” with U.S. optical sensor payloads and Japanese satellite simulators. This means the effort with the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System is on track for payloads to be delivered to Japan in 2022, with launches scheduled for 2023 and 2024.

The U.S. Space Force will move more into the role of providing space-based tactical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance—a role typically filled by the intelligence community—with a new ground moving target indicator capability possibly coming soon. USSF Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond said that since small satellites have become more operationally relevant and the cost of launches has dropped, “there’s a role here for the Space Force and tactical-level ISR.” U.S. Space Command and the Space Force’s predecessor Air Force Space Command have not typically participated in this role, but now is the time to provide the service in a role that is “complementary” to what already exists, Raymond said.

The F-35 has problems, but its operational success and critical role in future conflicts outweigh them, said Rep. Anthony Brown during the McAleese FY2022 Defense Programs Conference on May 12. He urged that the services' 2022 F-35 request—as well as any congressional adds—be supported by House leaders.