Fighter fleet is strained — and bill is coming due, ACC chief says
By Stephen Losey
Sep 23, 04:44 PM
This is stretching the fighter fleet thin, ACC head Gen. Mark Kelly said in a keynote address at the Air Force Association’s Air Space Cyber conference here — and, in a major war, will become unsustainable.
“It’s like a bill that comes to your house … for 60 multirole fighter squadrons,” Kelly told reporters in a roundtable later that day. “I’m trying to pay that bill with 48 fighter squadrons and nine attack squadrons [consisting of A-10 Thunderbolt II planes].”
While those 57 combined fighter and attack squadrons are not far off from 60, Kelly said, the A-10 will not be survivable in a future war against a peer or near-peer adversary with advanced air defenses. The Air Force has also for years pushed to retire some or all of the A-10 fleet.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2022/09/23/fighter-fleet-is-strained-and-bill-is-coming-due-acc-chief-says/
