Ukraine war should wake up US leaders to the precarious state of the Air Force
By Douglas A. Birkey
Mar 8, 11:29 AM
Members of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 242 clear new F-35B aircraft on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, on May 9, 2021. (Lance Cpl. Bryant Rodriguez/U.S. Marine Corps)
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine should serve as a wake-up call to U.S. leaders regarding our military’s inability to meet the scale of modern threats, especially when it comes to airpower. Two decades of low-intensity operations in Afghanistan and Iraq masked a precipitous capability and capacity erosion. Never has the Air Force fielded such an old, small aircraft inventory. The FY23 budget request will stand as an important test as to whether the Biden administration takes action to reverse this trend. The time has come for topline growth, while also spending the money we have more effectively.
First and foremost, we need to get real about force sizing. The 2018 national Defense Strategy directed the services to be able to fight a single conflict with either China or Russia, sustain the nuclear deterrence enterprise, defend the homeland, and deter a lesser aggressor. Here’s the problem with that: adversaries get a vote. Conflict does not happen in an orderly sequence. Just look at Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine at a time when we are trying to check an increasingly assertive China in the Pacific. We cannot do both, but world events demand that response. It’s time to grow the military, particularly the Air Force.
https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2022/03/08/ukraine-war-should-wake-up-us-leaders-to-the-precarious-state-of-the-air-force/
