The last two decades of war and continuous operations have taken a significant toll on airmen, their families, and equipment, Secretary Michael Donley said on Friday in his speech on the state of the Air Force at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. “We have a responsibility to rebuild to the full spectrum of readiness and training if the force is going to be prepared for the future, including any unexpected contingencies that may arise,” said Donley. However, “the modernization we need so badly would likely be delayed even further” under sequestration, he said.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…