Douglas A. Birkey

“Sept. 30 marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Airlift. In the first victory of the Cold War, U.S. and U.K. Airmen flew 278,000 sorties, rescuing the people of West Berlin from starvation. Yet the strategic significance of this crucial air campaign ...

As world leaders gathered at Normandy last week to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, it is important to recall that America was not ready for that war. It took two and a half years to generate the combat power necessary to invade ...

At the dawn of the Cold War, a simple phrase defined America’s national security strategy: “Peace through strength.” Today, 75 years later, the world faces similarly severe challenges, but this time the United States is struggling to adopt and actualize a similarly decisive policy. 

China, Russia, Iran and others pose a dire threat to our nation. Yet the fiscal 2025 budget submitted to Congress is woefully inadequate to confront those challenges—especially for the Department of the Air Force, writes Douglas A. Birkey

“The year 2024 will stand as a transformative year for modernizing the U.S. Air Force’s fighter force. Bottom line: the service needs to reset fast. That is why it was welcome news when Lockheed Martin recently announced the Tech Refresh 3/Block 4 variant of its ...

Military missions in the air, on land, and at sea demand robust, timely weather information. On-orbit space-based environmental monitoring (SBEM) systems are a critical source of this data, but years of underfunding, delayed, curtailed, and canceled modernization programs have left the SBEM enterprise in a ...

Beginning with the fiscal 2024 budget, every dollar for F-35 will fund TR-3-equipped Block 4 jets. The need for those jets could hardly be greater.

The post-World War II drawdown left the Air Force ill-prepared for conflict. The parallels with today are enlightening.

Lessons from the Battle of Britain loom large in how USAF constructs the Advanced Battle Management System.

Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Timothy M. Ray talks about the high demand for USAF bombers and the value bomber task force missions bring to the nation.

Priorities for the Pentagon’s new leadership must begin with aerospace power.

Conventional measures mask the true cost of operations—cost-per-effect does not.

The case for a new version of the F-22, reborn with the brains of the F-35.

DOD must harness innovation when developing new operational conceptions, but it also needs to ensure that real-world pragmatic perspectives are driving the decision-making process, according to experts at the West Coast Aerospace Forum last week.

The threats to US national security are greater than they've been in decades, and the US can no longer afford to push off mounting modernization costs, said two members of the National Defense Strategy Commission at the West Coast Aerospace Forum.