There is a need for the US military to increase capability in the Asia-Pacific region, said Gen. Hawk Carlisle, Pacific Air Forces commander. While budget sequestration has complicated this task, there are core areas, such as long-range reach, that demand attention, Carlisle told attendees at AFA’s Air and Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Sept. 18. The F-35 strike fighter, KC-46A tanker, and Long Range Strike Bomber are all key to PACAF’s strategy to support future plans, he said. How the Air Force conducts next-generation intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance is one of the biggest challenges in the region, said Carlisle. This is not just a platform issue, he noted, since it also involves working out information sharing activity with friends and partners in the region and jointly conducting processing, exploitation, and dissemination activities with treaty allies like Japan, he said. (See also Air Defense and Access in Asia.)
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.