Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, highlighted a point about the average age of the service’s aircraft—23 years, in case you haven’t been paying attention—by noting that he had just come from a trip to Hickam Air Force Base, where he saw the F-15 Eagle he flew in 1976 now being flown by the Hawaii Air National Guard. Moseley maintains the Air Force needs new airplanes, but he cautioned against thinking that the replacement will be on a “one for one” basis. There is no need to replace every current aircraft, he said, because the capability of the new aircraft far exceeds that of older aircraft. “For every F-15, we don’t need an F/A-22; for every F-16 we don’t need an F-35,” Moseley said.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.