Washington, February 18, 2008 - After grueling years of the War in Afghanistan and Iraq, modern replacements are urgently needed for the Airforce’s aging jet fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft and gunships.  

According to Maj. Gen. Paul Selva, strategic planning director of the Air Force and other senior Air Force officers, there will be an extra $20 billion each year.  Starting 2009, there will be a proposed Air Force budget of about $137 billion instead of the $117 billion proposed by the Bush administration shall solve the budget problem.  Though the Air Force will be facing a major procurement crisis since the budget allocated might not be sufficiently enough for the much needed materials and equipment. 

The Air Force should rethink their strategy and proceed with forgone opportunities. 

 One of the reasons why the Air force’s equipment has aged so much was that they proceeded with the development and acquisition of new weapon systems, costing up to two or three times as much as the systems that were being replaced.  Since the mid-1990s, there were many aircraft added such as the B-2 Spirit Stealth bomber, the C-17 Globemaster airlifter and the CV-22 tilt-rotor, which flies like a helicopter or an airplane.  The Air Force is also planning to spend between $30 billion and $40 billion over the next 15 years for new refueling tankers but these new tankers won’t be scheduled for flight until 2013.  Another reason for the aging of aircraft was that some aircraft had excessive flying hours such as the current F-15s and F-16s, which were more than 20 years old.  The Air Force is generally spending more money on extensive repairs which is a very bad investment. 

The Air Force should carefully deal with these problems.  Otherwise, it will only lead to a much worse problem for the years ahead.