As much expertise as the National Guard has compiled in homeland defense missions, Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, National Guard Bureau boss, said he is not receptive to suggestions that would separate the Guard from the total force to serve solely in domestic missions. “This heads you down the road of being a constabulary force and won’t serve the nation as effectively,” McKinley said Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. To dedicate the Guard—Army or Air—to domestic missions would erode capability across the total force.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.