Asked where he’d like to see his next investment dollar go, Lt. Gen. David Deptula, the Air Staff’s intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance lead, said Wednesday he’d put it towards a long-range, multi-role strike platform. “We cannot move into a future without a platform that allows the United States of America to project power over long distances and to meet advanced threat systems in a fashion that gives us an advantage that no other nation has,” Deptula said following an Air Force Association-sponsored breakfast speech in Arlington, Va. He added, “We can’t walk away from that.” He emphasized that this future “bomber,” like modern F-22s and F-35s, will not be a single-role platform, even if it has a “B” designation, but rather a “flying sensor platform” that also has the capability to deliver ordnance. “No longer are we going to build or should we build single-capability platforms,” he said.
President Donald Trump’s nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff touted his highly unusual background for the job as an asset and reaffirmed his commitment to stay apolitical during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 1.