‘Costly and strategic blunder’: Retired Air Force generals blast service plan to cut F-35s, scrap new surveillance plane
By COREY DICKSTEIN STARS AND STRIPES •
July 10, 2025
Deep cuts to the Air Force’s F-35 program and the elimination of the E-7 Wedgetail program would prove a “costly and strategic blunder” for the service, a retired three-star general said Thursday. Retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula told reporters that the proposed cuts to the programs in the Air Force’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal unveiled last month would leave the service with problematic capability gaps given an uncertain security environment around the world.
The latest budget proposal, Deptula said, would cut some 340 aircraft from the service while purchasing only 76 new airframes, including only 24 F-35As — the most advanced fighter aircraft now flying. “The Air Force today is the oldest, the smallest and the least ready it’s ever been in its entire history,” Deptula said during a news briefing organized by the Air and Space Forces Association. “And the current programming schedule, it has [the Air Force fleet] getting even smaller as we move into the next five years, and quite frankly, there’s insufficient funding in the budget to stop that decline. That’s why raising this to the attention of Congress and the American public is so important.”
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https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2025-07-10/retired-air-force-generals-f35-budget-18401432.htmlSource - Stars and Stripes