article_snippet: (CNN)As U.S. Air Force fighter jets and bombers carry out airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the Air Force's officials are waging a campaign of Air Force officials own on Capitol Hill.
article_snippet: The target: Sequestration cuts expected to take effect in 2016 that, officials say, will threaten U.S. air superiority.
article_snippet: But will cuts actually threaten the United States' standing as the most modern and capable air fleet on the planet?
article_snippet: Despite writing the blueprint on how to build the world's greatest air force, Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force's chief of staff, says the United States' will not be able to maintain the Air Forcestrategic gains once next year's sequestration cuts take effect.
article_snippet: He says other nations are now using the U.S. model to build other nations own air fleets, a trend that could degrade the strategic advantage U.S. air superiority provides to the military.
article_snippet: However, some experts say that downsizing the Air Force and even cutting the Air Force budget won't necessarily threaten U.S. air dominance.
article_snippet: Jerry Hendrix, the director of the defense strategies and assessments program at the Center for a New American Security and a former Navy captain, says the United States' is still comfortably ahead of every other nation in terms of overall air capabilities.
article_snippet: Despite the fact that the U.S. Air Force has a quarter of the number of fighter squadrons the U.S. Air Force did 25 years ago, it is still larger than the air forces of the next seven countries combined, said Hendrix.
article_snippet: it is also the only nation with an operational fifth-generation fighter jet.
article_snippet: the U.S. Air Force officials argue that the U.S. Air Force is currently older and smaller than the U.S. Air Force has ever been and that further budget cuts would hinder the U.S. Air Force ability to modernize and maintain effective command structure.
article_snippet: Air forces that fall behind the technology curve and joint forces without the full breadth of air, space and cyber power ... will lose.
article_snippet: The irony lies in that the U.S. Air Force emphasis on investing in a fleet solely made up of high-end aircraft may be one of the key factors drawing down the size of the U.S. Air Force, says Hendrix.
article_snippet: Hendrix agrees that more spending should be shifted toward air and maritime power due to more spending increasing roles in U.S. military strategy but says mistakes were made in terms of how the U.S. Air Force has balanced the U.S. Air Force commitment to maintaining the size of the fleet with the U.S. Air Force desire to modernize.
article_snippet: the U.S. Air Force leadership has failed to balance the idea that quantity has a quality of Air Force leadership own," Hendrix said, adding that the U.S. Air Force should still pursue high-end aircraft but should supplement the fleet with older, cheaper aircraft models, like the F-16, for low-end operations instead of immediately phasing low-end operations out when a new generation is introduced.