The Air Force's fiscal 2026 combat aircraft budget request goes big on the new F-47 and B-21, but only buys 45 new fighters, less than half its traditional goal. The service said it can only buy what industry can make, and the desired 72 fighters ...
Senate and House lawmakers released their compromise 2025 National Defense Authorization bill on Dec. 7—the proposed legislation would give a 14.5 percent pay raise to junior enlisted Airmen and Guardians and prohibit the Air Force from retiring any F-15E or F-22 fighters.
Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, head of Air Combat Command, wants to keep the 32 F-22 Block 20 Raptors the Air Force has been trying to divest, saying that even without upgrades, they’d be valuable in a fight.
As world leaders gathered at Normandy last week to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, it is important to recall that America was not ready for that war. It took two and a half years to generate the combat power necessary to invade ...
The ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee offered a set of sweeping proposals for what he called a “generational investment” in the U.S. military—including hundreds of new fighter jets, bombers, and drones for the Air Force over the next several years.
At the dawn of the Cold War, a simple phrase defined America’s national security strategy: “Peace through strength.” Today, 75 years later, the world faces similarly severe challenges, but this time the United States is struggling to adopt and actualize a similarly decisive policy.
“The year 2024 will stand as a transformative year for modernizing the U.S. Air Force’s fighter force. Bottom line: the service needs to reset fast. That is why it was welcome news when Lockheed Martin recently announced the Tech Refresh 3/Block 4 variant of its ...
Congress finally passed the National Defense Authorization Act and sent its 3,000 pages to the White House for President Biden’s signature. The annual defense policy bill was approved with overwhelming bipartisan support, as the Senate and House voted it through on Dec. 13 and 14, ...
The No. 1 priority of the National Military Strategy (NMS) has been to “Defend the Homeland.” Some 94 percent of that mission falls to Air National Guard squadrons sitting 24/7 alert in Reagan-era F-15 and F-16 fighter aircraft. That capability is now threatened, writes retired Maj. Gen. ...
The cost of the F-15EX fighter under the program's new status as a Major Defense Program is about $94 million, the Air Force announced in its Selected Acquisition Reports. Plans call for initial operational capability next year.
On July 18, the Senate will start debate on the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, bringing the annual defense policy bill one step closer to passage. But to reach that point, lawmakers will have to decide what to do with the 666 amendments currently filed to ...
Without a large corrective investment, the Air Force’s aged fighter force will “collapse” soon due to its small size, lack of training in high-end warfare, low availability, and chronic shortage of pilots and maintainers, according to a new report from the Air & Space Forces ...
