Don’t expect great funding infusions or schedule acceleration in the Air Force’s long-range strike activities as a result of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plans to reduce aircraft carriers and submarines, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley told the Daily Report Thursday. Commenting on Gates’ speech to the Navy League on Monday (see “Blacker Saturday?” above), Donley said “I wouldn’t read the Navy speech as putting emphasis on long-range strike,” but as a simple recitation of the economic facts of life. He added, “We are all facing the prospect of more program than our budgets can sustain,” he said (see Internal Problem above)
Defense experts say the drone threat represents only part of a larger, looming problem: U.S. air bases in the Pacific are increasingly vulnerable to air attacks.