Split to win: Why the Air Force must become 4 services
By Maj. Gen. John G. Ferrari (ret.)
Jun 26, 2025, 06:00 PM
The U.S. Air Force, once at the technological vanguard, has become burdened by decades of bureaucratic growth and failed weapons procurement. It is time for our leaders to make radical change. The Air Force must be broken up to meet the demands of 21st-century warfare. As America stares down the challenge of a potential war with China or Russia, its military should be more agile and focused than our adversaries.
The idea of breaking the Air Force into four parts may seem radical, but it mirrors the kind of organizational clarity that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called for across the Defense Department. Rather than endlessly “reforming” the current structure with marginal gains, we should fundamentally realign it to match strategic reality.
Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian strategic bombers exposed the fallacy of depending on small numbers of exquisite weapons for defense, which is our current strategy. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin’s recent statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee further warns that the service simply wants more money to keep chugging along.
But these difficult realities are opportunities for reform. Steve Feinberg, the deputy secretary of defense, joined the Trump administration from private equity with experience in doing what our air force needs: taking apart undervalued organizations and discarding what’s broken to create something new and more valuable. Air Force reform should be his most important project.
https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/2025/06/26/split-to-win-why-the-air-force-must-become-4-services/
