There’s a tanker-sized gap in this vision of the Air Force’s future
A recent Mitchell Institute study gives dangerously short shrift to global mobility.
Mike Minihan | March 7, 2025 03:56 PM ET
The debate at this week’s Air & Space Force Association’s Warfare Symposium focused on a plea to President Trump to "Make the Air Force Great Again." In the spirit of a post-mission aircrew debrief, I offer this experienced intervention with the utmost respect for the entire Air Force enterprise. This is a team sport, and the team must improve. Immediate and ruthless self-assessment is essential. Senior leadership, industry partners, and all Airmen must recognize that this moment is consequential. Without drastic shifts in our approach, we will squander a once-in-a-century opportunity to transform the force—and fail to close the capability gap between mobility’s aerial refueling and cargo fleet and the fighter and bomber fleet they support.
Transformation is not tied solely to changes in presidential administrations. During my tenure as commander of Air Mobility Command, we sensed and seized opportunities to aggressively pursue our obligation to better support the Air Force and the Joint Force in conflict and crisis. We rapidly developed new concepts to advance each of our core missions: airlift, aerial refueling, aeromedical evacuation, and enabling ground support.
We had ample operational data points to inform and guide our improvement efforts: Kabul, Ukraine, Mobility Guardian, Bamboo Eagle, Israel, Gaza, Homeland Defense, border security. All these missions and exercises were executed with a wounded and vulnerable fleet. (See, for example, reports on the KC-46 and C-130H.) We crafted strategy and guidance to inspire alignment, imagination, and action. Most importantly, we expanded beyond comfortable dogma, seeking innovative concepts and technical solutions from America’s brightest industrial minds.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/03/theres-tanker-sized-gap-vision-air-forces-future/403589/?oref=d1-featured-river-secondary
