Commentary | May 01, 2019
Air Force Magazine: Building the Air Force We Need
Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson issued a warning at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference last September: “We must see the world as it is. That is why the National Defense Strategy explicitly recognizes that we have returned to an era of great power competition. We must prepare.”
Read More
Commentary | Mar 29, 2019
Defense News: The Pentagon’s cost assessment office needs to reassess its F-15EX findings
Press accounts reveal that CAPE focused its case on four main points: boosting Air Force combat capacity in the near term; driving down aircraft sustainment cost; additional standoff capabilities; and ensuring diversity in the fighter-aircraft industrial base. These are important issues, but buying new F-15s is not the smartest way of accomplishing them.
Read More
Commentary | Mar 04, 2019
Breaking Defense: Mitchell Weighs In: More F-35s or New, Old F-15s?
The Air Force needs to buy more new fighter planes. The constricted size and increasing age of the Air Force’s fighter inventory is the product of long-standing deferred investment; the 2009 decision to prematurely curtail the F-22 buy at less than half its required inventory; failure to boost F-35 production to originally planned rates; and […]
Read More
Commentary | Feb 11, 2019
Forbes: Building the Air Force We Need To Meet Chinese and Russian Threats
Investments made in the Air Force’s future force structure must focus on combat aircraft able to effectively meet the security challenges identified in the current national security and military strategies. Specifically, China and Russia are radically advancing their military capabilities that threaten U.S. strategic preeminence.
Read More
Commentary | Jan 16, 2019
Pegasus arrives: KC-46 tanker makes America more effective in era of growing threats
This was a milestone week in Air Force history. The U.S. Air Force and Boeing found agreement on the terms for the KC-46 air-refueling aircraft to enter the active inventory. The long-sought goal of recapitalizing the KC-135 air-refueling force is set to begin. As former Secretary of the Air Force Donald Rice explained in the 1992 […]
Read More