Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson delivers her "Air Force We Need" speech during the 2018 Air Force Association's Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md., Sept. 17, 2018. The Air, Space and Cyber Conference is a professional development conference that offers an opportunity for Department of Defense personnel to participate in forums, speeches, seminars and workshops. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. DeAndre Curtiss)
Reuters: U.S. Air Force seeks sharp growth to stay ahead of China, Russia
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force is predicting it will need to grow sharply over the next decade or so, boosting the number of operational squadrons by nearly a quarter to stay ahead of increasingly muscular militaries in China and Russia, officials said.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters that the preliminary analysis drew partly from classified intelligence about possible threats in the 2025 to 2030 time frame, showing that the service, at its current size, would be unable to preserve America’s edge.”The Air Force is too small for what the nation is asking us to do,” Wilson told a small group of reporters ahead of a speech on Monday that will lay out her arguments.
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