“I believe we should boost the size” of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said in an interview with Air Force Magazine last week. “I think we can keep more capacity in those components,” and “if we move more force structure into the Guard and Reserve, that’s great.” Welsh acknowledged that the reserve component is less costly to maintain, but he insisted increasing it must not be done “right now … at the expense of the active component.” He explained, “The analysis we’ve done shows that that would be a bad idea and we can show how that would hurt mission capability, not help it.” Ideally, he would like to grow the Guard and Reserve “proportionately” with the Active Duty “to operate that force structure, that hardware.” But the active component is “at a red line … We’re going to break it if we go any smaller,” he added.
Now Is the Time to Boost CCA Investment
June 3, 2026
The Air Force wants about $1 billion to move Collaborative Combat Aircraft into production in fiscal 2027 and accelerate the introduction of this game-changing technology. Congress should support that objective.