After weeks of negotiations, top lawmakers unveiled a compromise version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, priming Congress to pass the annual policy bill before the end of the year. For the Air Force, the bill would carry major implications for the future of ...
divesting legacy aircraft
A record investment in research and development by the Department of the Air Force will help the United States win the long-term technology race with China, even while shrinking the fleet size before a possible mid-decade Taiwan contingency, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said May ...
With many lawmakers already pushing to increase the top line of the Pentagon’s fiscal 2023 budget, top defense officials acknowledged April 5 that their budget request was based off inflation rates that were “incorrect.” At the same time, they argued, the $773 billion request would ...
Legacy aircraft such as the KC-10, KC-135, E-8C JSTARS, RC-135, and RQ-4 all flew over eastern NATO allies including Poland and Romania in response to Russian aggression. But these platforms still need to be retired so the Air Force can modernize, Chief of Staff Gen. ...
A package deal similar to the Base Realignment and Closure process offers hope of getting Congress to let the Air Force retire old airplanes, Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said. The move could give members of Congress some political cover for allowing ...
If there’s a takeaway from the Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 defense budget, it’s this: The Air Force remains the billpayer for space capabilities, and it does so at the nation’s peril.
The Air Force is asking to retire 201 airplanes and buy 91 new ones in its fiscal 2022 budget request, representing a net decrease of 110 airplanes. The fighter fleet would drop by 77 aircraft, and the RQ-4 Global Hawk fleet would be cut by ...
Top Department of the Air Force leaders told lawmakers May 7 they need to divest aging aircraft to make room for more advanced systems, setting up a now familiar budget fight on Capitol Hill. “America cannot wait to modernize the Air Force any longer, not ...
