“I would hope we’ll see some decisions about how to move out soon” on the long range strike system, Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter said Wednesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. He called the LRS a “complex mosaic of electronic attack, ISR, strike, stand-in, standoff, manned, unmanned [capabilities]” requiring a lot of work in cost tradeoffs that is going on department-wide. “In so many places in the department, we’ve lost the knack for doing that. Not in the Air Force, in connection with this project. And that’s the work that [Defense Secretary Robert Gates] deserves to see before he makes decisions on that.
House, Senate Unveil Competing Proposals for 2026 Budget
July 11, 2025
Lawmakers from the House and Senate laid out competing versions of the annual defense policy bill on July 11, with vastly different potential outcomes for some of the Air Force’s most embattled programs.