The B-21 Long-Range Strike Bomber is critical because the Air Force’s bomber force continues to age and its advantages decline as adversaries of the United States are fielding new, capable defense systems, 11 former Air Force Chiefs of Staff and Secretaries wrote recently in an editorial in The Hill. A new long-range, sensor-enabled shooter force is “desperately needed,” and will comprise one leg of the nuclear triad, the former Air Force leaders wrote. Still, they acknowledged that members of Congress and others have expressed concerns about the limited amount of information the Air Force has released about the program. Former USAF Secretaries Donald Rice, Whitten Peters, James Roche, Michael Wynne, Michael Donley, and retired generals and former CSAFs Larry Welch, Merrill McPeak, Ronald Fogleman, Michael Ryan, John Jumper, and Norton Schwartz wrote that while the B-21 requires “thorough oversight,” the oversight should not expose classified details or cause the program to be delayed. “Cutting funding needed for development” of the B-21 now “could paradoxically run the risk of increasing program cost,” they warned.
Pentagon Releases Cost of Living, BAH Rates for 2026
Dec. 30, 2025
The Pentagon will pay cost of living allowances to 127,000 service members in the continental U.S. in 2026, an increase of 66,000 members in 2025. Airmen and Guardians across the U.S. will also receive an average increase of 4.2 percent for their Basic Housing Allowance, compared to the 5.4 percent…
