Gen. Robert Kehler, US Strategic Command boss, outlined the command’s priorities this week. First, he said, STRATCOM must “guarantee a safe, secure, effective, and ready nuclear deterrent force.” That includes providing tools “to combat proliferation and assure our scientific and innovation edge,” he told the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel in prepared testimony. Next, the command must work with other combatant commands to improve how it addresses trans-regional problems. This includes synchronizing activities in the realms of missile defense, intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and combating weapons of mass destruction, he wrote. Finally, STRATCOM must strive to improve capabilities in space and cyberspace. This includes “ensuring uninterrupted access” to space and space-based capabilities, improving “awareness of objects and activities in space,” and “improving space access, protection, and resilience,” stated Kehler. For cyberspace, this means enhancing “network protection” and maturing “organizations, capabilities, workforce, and partnerships,” he wrote.
The Air Force is seeking funding to let its pilots fly a little more than 1.1 million hours in fiscal 2027, which would be the most in about four years. But even if Airmen actually do fly all 1.1 million hours, it would still be short of the 1.3 million…