The Air Force’s budget enemies have finished beating up on the F-22 now that the aircraft is in the field and working beautifully, and the buy has been truncated to 183 airplanes, says Gen. Ron Keys, head of Air Combat Command. So that means they’ve moved on to the F-35, hoping to delay it long enough so that the price goes up and becomes unaffordable, asserted Keys, adding, “There are always termites out there looking for something to feed on.”
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.