The Secretary of the Air Force on Monday revealed her service’s internal estimate of how much it must grow to successfully execute the Trump administration’s defense strategy. The Air Force needs to add 74 operational squadrons to the 312 it already has — a 24% increase — for a total of 386 squadrons. And it needs an additional 40,000 personnel to populate the squadrons. It also needs to modify the mix of warfighting systems in the fleet as the main emphasis in national strategy shifts from fighting terrorists to deterring and/or defeating revisionist states such as Russia and China. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.
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