The U.S. Air Force Is in Serious Decline

[rangerrebew]

December 4, 2023   
The U.S. Air Force Is in Serious Decline
The Air Force today would struggle to execute another Desert Storm, much less take on a peer adversary like China.

by John Venable

In September, the United States Air Force celebrated another birthday. At age 76, it is in bad shape.
 
Despite lowering qualification standards, it cannot attract enough recruits to fill its ranks. The size and serviceability of its combat aircraft are at all-time lows. Truncated training has weakened pilot readiness.

In sum, the Air Force today would struggle to execute another Desert Storm, much less take on a peer adversary like China. Even more distressing, the service’s leaders show no interest in pulling out of that downward spiral. Let’s start with a few facts.

U.S. Air Force Recruiting
The active duty Air Force missed its FY 2023 recruiting goals by 11 percent. Its Air Reserve component fell short by 30 percent. The chief of Air Force recruiting said the numbers would have been much worse had the service not changed its policies regarding drug use, body composition, age, and the like. While some deny that equates to lower standards, it most certainly brings them into question.


Standards
From its founding in 1947 through the end of the Cold War, the Air Force placed a premium on building and sustaining a cadre of the most exceptional aviators in the world. Selection for flight school was based on performance during the accessions process and previous flight experience—criteria that sent those with the highest potential to excel to flight school. Screening for excellence continued through every phase of training beyond.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/us-air-force-serious-decline-207728

[rangerrebew]

We can feel blessed Biden promoted the general responsible for the mess to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

[sneakypete]

No  surprise.

The USAF is the branch  of service that requires the most intelligence as well as the most ability and willingness to "do the job",regardless of the challenges,and those people are in short supply without a "universal draft".

Pilots get the most attention,but they are a minority of the USAF population. The majority of the USAF population is probably dedicated to servicing the aircraft in one form or another,be it being an airplane mechanic,or a supply sergeant.

With no war on and no draft,the young men who would normally be enlisting in the US military,especially in the USAF are in short supply.

And let's face it,the USAF has  some bases in places you wouldn't want to see your worse enemy assigned to. Places like Greenland,where it gets too cold for polar bears. Imagine being an aircraft mechanic and having to service jets on the flight line in the winter.

Imagine being assigned somewhere for a year or more where there are no women available,and no place to go off base.

The USN has a lot of these same problems,but the weather/living conditions  isn't generally as brutal.

Same with the USCG,who have to go out into hurricanes to rescue idiots in boats a LOT smaller than aircraft carriers.

You want people to enlist for those branches of the service,declare another war and bring back the draft.