The Air Force cannot keep taking money away from “critical mission infrastructure” to fund operational activities, said Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., last week. Without updates to educational and nuclear infrastructure, test facilities, training ranges, and simulation infrastructure, combat capability will be severely affected, he said. “We have got to get back to a persistent, consistent investment in this kind of infrastructure or our Air Force will break 10 years from now,” said Welsh. (Welsh transcript.)
U.S. munitions have been expended at a high rate during Operation Epic Fury against Iran, prompting concerns that the Pentagon is eating into weapons stockpiles it needs to deter threats around the world. Yet the newly released $1.5 trillion defense budget request was developed before the war against Iran and…