Cuts to the Air Force’s structure and programs must be placed in the context of a strategy, warned two Air Force major command bosses. “I look at capability and capacity,” said Gen. Raymond Johns, head of Air Mobility Command, last week during the four-star forum at the Air Force Association’s Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md. “We have a strategy and we are sized to meet that strategy. If it changes, we need to match the capacity to it. If [the strategy] doesn’t change, we need to be clear about what we can and can’t do.” Pacific Air Forces’ Gen. Gary North said he thinks “it’s a consensus that we won’t give up our ability to respond to a threat or disaster,” noting that cuts likely would come in areas like quality-of-life before readiness is endangered. “At some point,” he added, “we will go to the service Chiefs and say there’s less we will be able to do.”
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.