Brown: Aircraft Planned for Divestment Likely Wouldn’t Go to War Anyway

[rebewranger]

Brown: Aircraft Planned for Divestment Likely Wouldn’t Go to War Anyway
April 13, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The 250 aircraft the Air Force is seeking to divest in fiscal 2023—with potentially a net 1,000 coming out of the inventory over the five-year defense plan—are largely airplanes the service considers obsolete for air combat and wouldn’t take to war anyway, said Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr.

In a roundtable discussion with defense reporters, Brown characterized the fiscal 2023 budget as the second bite at his “accelerate change or lose” approach to transitioning the Air Force to the capabilities it will need in the future.

Brown said “raw numbers” of aircraft don’t tell the whole story. He needs to push the aircraft inventory from war-irrelevant systems to ones that will be war-winning in the future. However, he acknowledged the near-term risk against a backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s increasingly threatening posture toward Taiwan. “We all feel a bit of discomfort” about it, he said.

https://www.airforcemag.com/brown-aircraft-planned-for-divestment-likely-wouldnt-go-to-war-anyway/

[rebewranger]

To me, this seems like an awfully dangerous game.  All I can see is the monetary savings going to Ukraine or illegal immigrants with a promise to refund planes later - with no assurance the money will  be replaced.

[Kamaji]

To me, this seems like an awfully dangerous game.  All I can see is the monetary savings going to Ukraine or illegal immigrants with a promise to refund planes later - with no assurance the money will  be replaced.

I'm more concerned with whether an actual, objective, dispassionate - apolitical - review has been done of the aircraft inventory, or whether this is just another politically-motivated stunt.

[DefiantMassRINO]

They're making more room in the budgets for the new shiny weapons systems.

There are more kickbacks to be made in procuring new systems than in maintaining legacy ones, like the EM-50 Urban Assualt Vehicle.  That technology is over 40 years old.