The U.S. can’t match China plane-for-plane or ship-for-ship and shouldn’t try, defense experts told the House Armed Services Committee. But the defense industrial base has to be married to new, asymmetric, disruptive operational concepts that the Pentagon is willing to adapt on the fly.
Col. Mark Gunzinger
The Air Force’s B-21 Raider will be the world’s most advanced stealthy bomber when it is fielded later in this decade. For Air Force leaders, the challenge will be to fund the B-21 program to rapidly acquire the inventory it needs to meet operational demands.
A new generation of precision weapons is needed to enhance modern strike capability and deter potential aggressors. “We need fifth-generation weapons to go with our fifth-generation Air Force,” said Gen. Mark D. Kelly, head of Air Combat Command, in October 2021, counting such munitions among ...
WORLD: Air Power: F-35 flies with Tech Refresh 3; B-21 family of systems; RC-26 aircraft to the Boneyard.
With the unveiling of the B-21 Raider, speculation and interest in the new bomber have reached a fever pitch, with a first flight still to come in mid-2023. But the B-21 won’t just be about the large, flying wing aircraft that rolled out in Palmdale, ...
Retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, moderated a discussion on "Building Capacity Today, While Innovating Capabilities for Tomorrow" with Rep. Kaiali'i Kahele (D-Hawaii), Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), and retired Col. Mark Gunzinger of the Mitchell Institute at ...
Retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula moderated a discussion on "Long-Range Strike: Fielding Tomorrow's Bomber" with Maj. Gen. Jason R. Armagost, director of strategic plans, programs, and requirements, Air Force Global Strike Command; Melissa A. Johnson, acting director of the DAF Rapid Capabilities Office; Thomas ...
The Air Force’s internal analysis has left Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. confident in the capacity of the service’s combat aircraft fleet—especially when considering what the U.S.’s partners and allies can bring to the fight. Speaking with reporters at AFA’s Air, Space ...
The U.S. must reverse decades of underfunding its Air Force.
The Pentagon's Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan details nearly a dozen objectives creating institutions and processes to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties. But critics say the plan’s objectives may do more harm than good, creating extra layers of bureaucracy for planners and operators ...
Like their colleagues throughout the Air Force, the service’s top munitions experts hail the potential of cutting-edge aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II and B-21 Raider. But without enough of the right kind of munitions, they believe, these and other platforms could fall short of ...
House-Senate Conferees require a larger Air Force in the final version of the fiscal 2021 defense bill, directing the service to build the 386 combat squadrons it said it needs to meet the National Defense Strategy, and specifically raising the bomber fleet to 225 aircraft, ...
