Getting your player ready...
Air Force officials warn that unless their budget is increased dramatically, the force won’t dominate the skies as it has for decades.
After more than six years of war, the Air Force’s aging jet fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft and gunships are at the breaking point, they say, and expensive, ultramodern replacements are needed fast.
Maj. Gen. Paul Selva, the Air Force’s director of strategic planning, said an extra $20 billion each year over the next five — beginning with an Air Force budget of about $137 billion in 2009 instead of the $117 billion proposed by President Bush — would solve the problem. Congress is expected to boost the 2009 budget, but not to the level urged by the Air Force.
