If the Air Force keeps its legacy fighters longer than expected due to potential delays in the F-35 program, Air Combat Command will be selective about which aircraft get service-life and capability upgrades, says ACC Commander Gen. William Fraser. “We are . . . doing some prudent planning in ACC” to determine whether some types of aircraft will get structural and avionics improvements, he stated Tuesday during an Air Force Association-sponsored Air Force Breakfast Series presentation in Arlington, Va. “Everything does not need to be the same,” said Fraser, and ACC will apply upgrades based on “what we’re asking the various platforms to do.” For example, he continued, “if I have aircraft back here doing air sovereignty alert, they do not need to be exactly the same as our F-16 Block 40s and 50s” that deploy to combat overseas. (For a similar discussion, read Targeted F-16 Upgrades.)
This year’s Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting buzzed with talk of countering the rapidly evolving drone threat facing the entire U.S. military, including the Air Force. Leaders and defense industry officials discussed the need for new approaches to procurement and employment of a new class of these…
