According to several reports, the U.S. Air Force is preparing for a huge overhaul in the coming weeks. The plan is to implement a major structural shakeup, which will push the force to keep up with China’s military buildup. Most of these plans are not public news yet.
However, six people familiar with the plans say with POLITICO to give a brief overview of the strategy. They were a Space Force official, three congressional aides, and two Air Force advisers.
According to them, the service will announce it is consolidating some of its major three- and four-star commands, integrating fighter jets and bomber aircraft into single units, and beefing up its budget and planning shop. This will happen within the next few weeks.
The aim of this plan is to fortify the service to be able to meet China head-on. Without a doubt, China is one of the leading countries with the strongest Air Force service. Therefore, they have to make a lot of significant changes to match up with them.
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The overhaul reportedly includes reorganizing how the service plans for, budgets, and designs new aircraft. In addition, there is a high chance that they will kick-start the new uncrewed aircraft and fighter plane projects. When news of this broke to the public, most people had a major concern: the budget.
While the changes sound promising, they come at a time when experts predict the defense budgets will stay the same or only increase slightly. Therefore, many wonder where the dining for this project will come from. Will there be budget cuts within the service? Or will there be budget cuts on a national level to divert funds to this project?
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For now, nobody has the answers. Sources also say that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has worked on the plan since September 2023. It is called “Reoptimizing for Great Power Competition.” According to one of the advisers, “It will be a really big deal.”
They have not made most of their plans public yet, but soon, most people will have the full breakdown. The Air Force will announce this plan on February 12th at the Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Colorado. The public first got wind of this plan when Kendall mentioned that he was planning for a reorganization in September 2023.
He told the AFA’s annual conference that he was working on a “sweeping” review of Air Force readiness that would “reoptimize” the service to prepare for war. He also mentioned that the plan should be ready by January.
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According to the two spokespeople, the changes are already in the works. They also believe that the shakeup is necessary due to “significant and dangerous shifts in the strategic environment.” Therefore, it led the service to launch “a major effort to reoptimize the Department of the Air Force.”
Many sources seem optimistic about these changes, hoping they will improve the modernization of the force. As February 12th approaches, several people, including civilians, are waiting eagerly to hear the full plan.
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