When the Air Force Association holds its annual conclave in Orlando later this week, there will be a palpable sense of relief among participants about the outlook for modernization. After two decades of depressed spending on cutting-edge technology, the service is finally getting the kind of budget boost from Congress that it needs to sustain both readiness and investment in the future.
It's no mystery why the funding increase is required. As the very first sentence in the Air Force's 2019 budget overview states, "this budget prioritizes long-term competition with China and Russia." The expectation of previous administrations that great power rivalries were abating have been confounded, and military planners must again prepare to contain the aggressive impulses of Beijing and Moscow. Read More