China is “acquiring a first-strike capability” with its nuclear forces, and the Department of the Air Force does not have “a moment to lose” in modernizing its conventional and nuclear capabilities, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in his keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space ...
A pair of House Armed Services subcommittees, in markups of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, pushed back on some Air Force efforts to divest of legacy platforms while also pressing the service to examine the issue of ejection seat safety. On July 27, the ...
The Air Force is already suspending plans to send aircraft and personnel to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., after Congress signaled its intent to block the service from retiring A-10s. The service had said it intended to move A-10s and HH-60s to Davis-Monthan from Nellis ...
The successor to the RQ-4 Global Hawk should be available for service late in this decade, Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, told the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 21. Answering questions on divestitures of systems ...
The House Appropriations Committee released its draft of the fiscal 2022 defense budget on June 29, adding C-130s and MQ-9s to the Air Force’s budget request while leaving the service’s request for F-35s and F-15EXs untouched.
Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft are among the Air Force's most-requested assets worldwide, but the service wants to cut back the number of combat air patrols it supports with ISR on any given day so it can free up funds in the fiscal 2022 budget ...
The Air Force’s plan to cut 42 A-10 Warthogs in fiscal 2022 targets Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and the Indiana Air National Guard, but while those wings would lose Warthogs, they would pick up new missions. The Air Force wants to cut the Warthog ...
Flying hours dropped in the Air Force's fiscal 2022 budget request because weapon system sustainment costs ballooned, senior Air Force officials told lawmakers June 22. They said the service would value Congress adding money to the budget to help with weapon system sustainment, which in ...
The total program cost of re-engining the B-52H fleet of 76 airplanes will be about $11 billion, a 9 percent jump over a previous estimate because of more-up-to-date data. Acting Air Force Secretary John P. Roth told the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 17 ...
Even with a 3 percent to 5 percent increase in the defense budget, losing a conflict with China still becomes a “distinct possibility" without both aircraft cuts and a fundamental change in how the Air Force structures itself for war, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles ...
Multilateralism and norms of behavior in space should be priorities in any future arms control negotiations, senior military leaders told Congress on June 15. The response to questions from Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) came the day before U.S. President Joe Biden is set to meet ...
The Air Force wants another dozen F-15EXs as part of its $4.2 billion unfunded priorities list it submitted to Congress this week, but the service is not asking for any additional F-35A strike fighters. The Space Force sent a separate request to the Hill, but ...