Gen. Mike Hostage, the Air Force’s Commander of Air Combat Command, was consistently blunt during remarks at the Air Force Association Conference in Washington, D.C., in September.
“If anybody here managed their personal budget the way we’re managing the nation’s budget, they’d probably wind up either in jail or out on the street,” he said.
Continuing budget uncertainties are forcing him to make the best of less than optimal choices, with major consequences for the Air Force’s ability to assure the strategic and tactical freedom of maneuver that the nation’s politicians and joint forces expect. The most fundamental of these choices pits today’s security against tomorrow’s.
The Air Force’s fighter fleet is old and worn out. Period. Preserving its capabilities would require both modernization of the existing fleet of fourth-generation fighters and recapitalization with a new, full fleet of 1,763 fifth-generation F-35s. But with Washington’s endless budget battle unabated, there simply isn’t money to do both.
“Our current fiscal environment will force me to make the hard decision between recapitalization and modernization,” Hostage acknowledged.