The Air Force’s top officer made a blunt case Nov. 13 for the service to get more funding so the nation can employ more effective airpower—and offered a preview of a coming force design to go with that funding.
“I think the United States of America needs more Air Force. I think we need more Air Force,” Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said at the inaugural Airpower Futures Forum hosted by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “I think we can see why. We can see what we can do with more Air Force, and I think we can provide some capabilities for the nation that we’re unable to now just because of how we are stressed. The force is stressed. And we’re still doing our very damn best.”
Allvin and other top officials outlined the service’s future force design, which the chief said is built around four attributes: lethality, survivability, mass, and connectivity.
The current Air Force is the smallest in history by aircraft inventory, and nuclear modernization is putting budgetary pressure on some of the service’s future programs, such as the crewed fighter of the Next-Generation Air Dominance program, which is in limbo and may be curtailed to keep costs down.
Allvin said the goal of the Air Force’s force design, which will outline capabilities needed for a 2030s timeframe, is to enable the service to continue “thinking about the change in the environment that we are experiencing, and how we need to ensure that our United States Air Force remains the most dominant force on the face of the planet.”
“It’s not going to happen as a birthright,” Allvin added. “We just can’t let it evolve on its own. We have to put work behind this. We have to put thought behind this.”
“It’s my job as Chief of Staff to advise our leadership on what I think that we should do with the Air Force we have, but also to be very clear about the things I think we need if we could have more Air Force,” Allvin said. “I think that’s something that this force design is going to suss out as us out as well, to be able to more clearly articulate: this is the value proposition that airpower has to our nation, and I think we’re fulfilling as much as we can within the resources that the American people give us.”
Allvin’s pitch for more funding comes amid speculation about how President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will approach the defense budget. Trump has said his foreign policy will be based on “peace through strength,” though incoming officials have not provided any details.
The Department of Defense is currently operating under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which imposes a one percent annual growth cap for the defense budget in fiscal 2025 and could further limit overall government spending through 2029.
“My point is that if the American people gave us more resources for the United States Air Force, we could do more mission. And I am committed to making sure with whatever dollar that we get, this force design ensures that we put the most lethality, the most combat effectiveness, and the best air force we can put forward for the nation,” Allvin said. “That’s my job, while at the same time advising for areas that if we were working with more resources.”