OPINION:
Whenever a crisis occurs, every president looks to his military advisers for options to deal with it. Whether it’s a large or small war or a natural disaster for which America wants to send humanitarian aid, every option relies on aerospace power.
Even a casual defense and national security observer knows that the Navy needs more and better ships. This is indisputable, but a matter that is equally or more important is getting too little attention.
The U.S. Air Force is now the oldest and smallest in terms of aircraft, and it is less ready to fight than at any time in its history. The U.S. Space Force — a part of the Air Force created during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term — does not have the resources to execute its missions or grow to dominate our adversaries in space.
Today, our Air Force has 58% fewer active-duty fighter squadrons and 51% fewer bombers than during 1991’s Operation Desert Storm. Can anyone believe that today’s threats are not greater than those we faced in 1991?
When he comes back into office, one of Mr. Trump’s highest priorities should be to rebuild the Air Force. Why? Because it is the nation’s indispensable force. No significant operation, no defensive or offensive campaign, can be conducted without the participation of one or more elements of the Air Force. That cannot be said about any of the other services.
When Ronald Reagan took office, Air Force aircraft were an average of 12 years old. Today, the average age of Air Force aircraft is over 30. The youngest B-52 is 63 years old. The most advanced current Air Force training aircraft, the supersonic T-38, first flew in 1958. Only 28% of the Air Force’s fighter aircraft and 14% of its bombers are stealthy, which means most of its combat aircraft cannot survive against Chinese, Russian or perhaps Iranian threats.
When the Israelis recently struck Iran, they took advantage of the F-35’s stealthiness to destroy many of the Russian-supplied S-300 anti-aircraft/antimissile systems. Stealth, like every other military technology, advances continuously, as do the countermeasures to it. As radars and other methods of detection improve, will our stealth capabilities be good enough in five or 10 years?
The Air Force is in a death spiral due to Congress’ shifting funds to other services. For 30 years, the Air Force has received less funding than the Army and Navy. Since the 9/11 attacks, the Army has received over $1.3 trillion more than the Air Force. That’s an average of $65 billion yearly for over two decades.
More than $40 billion further burdens the Air Force’s budget in spending authority deducted from its bottom line every year. In 2021, the “pass-through” amounted to $38 billion and grew to $44 billion in 2023.
This “pass-through” budget practice is the biggest threat to the modernization of the Air Force. It creates the false impression that the Department of the Air Force is getting funds commensurate with the Army and Navy departments. It is not and has not for three decades. As a result, the branch’s forces have significantly aged and atrophied to the point that they are no longer capable of executing all the demands of the national defense strategy.
According to National Defense Magazine, the “pass-through” budget funds may be used to fund the National Reconnaissance Office and other defense-related intelligence agencies. Regardless of where the funds go, they don’t pay for what the Air Force needs.
What the “pass-through” means is that while Congress pretends to fund Air Force modernization, it flatly isn’t doing so. This column does not question the funding needs of our military intelligence agencies, but it must question, in the gravest terms, the foolishness of not funding the Air Force sufficiently to maintain our force and the technological edge that it must have to fight and win.
I asked retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula for his assessment of Air Force shortfalls. Gen. Deptula was the first Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and is now the dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. He is a real warrior, having flown over 80 combat missions while commanding the enforcement of no-fly zones over Iraq and has more hours flying F-15s than anyone.
Gen. Deptula said: “We can no longer continue shrinking the Air Force as a means of paying for the capabilities of other services and agencies. There is no more to shrink. The USAF is on track to lose nearly one thousand aircraft over the next five years without complete replacement. Retiring more aircraft than the Air Force buys means insufficient airpower to meet our defense needs.”
We are rapidly losing our air and space capabilities and the technological edge we have relied on to deter or defeat our enemies. Without a rapid and major shift in Department of Defense resources to the Air Force, America risks losing its next war.
• Jed Babbin is a national security and foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Times and contributing editor for The American Spectator.
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