{"id":14240,"date":"2018-02-21T15:16:03","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T20:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lexingtoninstitute.org\/?p=14240"},"modified":"2018-02-21T15:16:03","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T20:16:03","slug":"air-force-missing-best-opportunity-replace-aging-aircraft-realcleardefense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lexingtoninstitute.org\/air-force-missing-best-opportunity-replace-aging-aircraft-realcleardefense\/","title":{"rendered":"The Air Force Is Missing Its Best Opportunity To Replace Aging Aircraft (From RealClearDefense)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in decades, the Air Force is getting enough money in the fiscal 2019 budget to cover its near-term readiness needs and invest adequately in the future.\u00a0 The service has disclosed bold plans to develop new warfighting systems and networks to assure air dominance in 2030.\u00a0 However, something is missing from its plans: there is no increase in the production rate of fifth-generation fighters and the KC-46 tanker.\u00a0 This is a serious oversight, because the current surge in funding won&#8217;t last long and the combat aircraft fleet is older than ever before.\u00a0 The last time there was a big increase in modernization funding &#8212; during the Reagan years &#8212; the Air Force bought a huge number of new fighters.\u00a0 This time around, it seems to be buying mostly ideas.\u00a0 Many of those ideas will not come to fruition before the budget walls close in again, and the service will have lost its opportunity to modernize air fleets quickly.\u00a0 I have written a commentary for RealClearDefense\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.realcleardefense.com\/articles\/2018\/02\/21\/the_air_force_is_missing_its_best_opportunity_to_replace_aging_aircraft_113086.html\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in decades, the Air Force is getting enough money in the fiscal 2019 budget to cover its near-term readiness needs and invest adequately in the future.\u00a0 The service has disclosed bold plans to develop new warfighting systems and networks to assure air dominance in 2030.\u00a0 However, something is missing from its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Air Force Is Missing Its Best Opportunity To Replace Aging Aircraft (From RealClearDefense) - Lexington Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lexingtoninstitute.org\/air-force-missing-best-opportunity-replace-aging-aircraft-realcleardefense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Air Force Is Missing Its Best Opportunity To Replace Aging Aircraft (From RealClearDefense) - Lexington Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the first time in decades, the Air Force is getting enough money in the fiscal 2019 budget to cover its near-term readiness needs and invest adequately in the future.\u00a0 The service has disclosed bold plans to develop new warfighting systems and networks to assure air dominance in 2030.\u00a0 However, something is missing from its [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lexingtoninstitute.org\/air-force-missing-best-opportunity-replace-aging-aircraft-realcleardefense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lexington Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-21T20:16:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lexingtoninstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/lex_share.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Loren B. 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