The Air Force’s new fighter plan calls for a 30 percent increase in fighter jets, but achieving that increase will be challenging, and the plan lacks a convincing force-sizing rationale, according to former service leaders and defense analysts.
J. J. Gertler
By the time the 2026 defense budget request arrived on Capitol Hill in June, Congress was closing in on passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, a massive tax-and-spending bill that included some $150 billion for defense. The budget reconciliation measure narrowly passed the ...