This is the calm before the storm. We are likely less than a decade away from a serious conflict with China and we are doing next to nothing about it with Biden in office. But there is still hope. Our Airforce is taking appropriate action and practically has a new motto when it comes to building new planes. “If it doesn’t threaten China, why are we doing it?”
“Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the service urgently needs to retire outdated air-frames so it can focus on developing modern aircraft to counter a rapidly modernizing Chinese military.
“During a panel here Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Kendall mentioned MQ-9 Reapers, some C-130s, older tankers, and the A-10 Warthog as examples of aging aircraft that — while useful during counterinsurgency missions in the Middle East over the last two decades — will struggle in a conflict with China.
“If it doesn’t threaten China, why are we doing it?” Kendall said in describing his mindset.
China has focused its own modernization efforts on ways to defeat high-value American assets, Kendall said — “of which the numbers are fairly low.”
Now, the U.S. has to respond to that, Kendall said. But the advancing age of the Air Force’s fleet, which averages about 30 years, is an “anchor holding back the Air Force.”
He lamented that the service has long sought to retire “old iron,” such as the A-10, only to encounter resistance from lawmakers who don’t want programs in their states to lose jobs.
Kendall’s views were echoed by the Air Force’s top officer. In an interview with Defense News Saturday, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown underscored the importance of letting some older air-frames go as a way to allow the service to bring on more F-35s and other newer aircraft.
“It’s really a tough decision of the things we’re going to let go, and how we transition from the current capabilities we have, to get to the capabilities of the future,” Brown said when asked about the choices that will have to be made in the Pentagon’s 2023 budget proposal.”
This is great news. Hopefully, all of our armed forces are following suit as China is a real threat that we soon will have to face. They want to take over Taiwan and eventually overtake us. Now it all hinges on whether or not Congress passes the needed budget to help our military prepare for the inevitable.