Full-spectrum training has to be reconsidered, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. Addressing AFA’s 2013 Air and Space Conference on Tuesday, Welsh said it “fell off the table” six or seven years ago but must be a focus. “Our job as an air force is to be ready to fight the high-end fight against the well-equipped, determined, well-trained foe,” he said. “I don’t know how big of a force we will have to do that, but whatever we have better be able to do that.” To maintain that readiness, exercises like Red Flag cannot continue to be canceled, he said, emphasizing the importance of figuring out how to fund them. “We need that training; our partners need that training,” he said. Welsh also referenced the negative effects of canceling classes at the Air Force Weapons School and how this leads to a “gap” in airmen’s education for the rest of their careers. “We can’t continue to allow that to happen,” he said.
Lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill are pressing the Pentagon to get serious about the threat cheap, small drones pose to U.S. forces at home and abroad—and to put them in the hands of American troops as quickly as possible.