Source: The Mitchell Institute (USA) – By Lt Gen David A. Deptula, USAF (Ret.) and Col Mark A. Gunzinger, USAF (Ret.) – Demand for both the Air Force and the Space Force is surging due to the national security challenges around the globe. Service leaders have asked for help to ensure this demand aligns with available resources. Yet, President Trump is inheriting an Air Force that is older, smaller, and less ready than it has ever been in its history history—despite the best efforts of leaders who have had to squeeze what capability they can out of insufficient resources. And, despite decades of decline, the service is slated to get even smaller over the next five years unless the administration takes immediate action to reverse this course.
Additionally, President Trump’s initiative in standing up the U.S. Space Force, while prescient to emerging threats, is beset by insufficient funding, inadequate numbers of personnel, and resistance to consolidating Department of Defense (DOD) space agencies. President Trump’s administration must prioritize fixing the Department of the Air Force, or else the consequences of a continued decline will be disastrous for the nation’s defense. (…)
A robust menu of air and space power capabilities, fielded by the Air Force and Space Force, are indispensable to our nation’s security leaders as they strive to navigate the difficult geopolitical environment of today and into the future in the most decisive manner possible.
The Air and Space Forces empower peace through strength—failing that, they have what it takes to successfully fight and win wars. The capabilities found in these two services demand careful stewardship to ensure airmen and guardians can deliver necessary options when the chips are down. Circumstances in both branches are fragile.
In the Air Force, this is attributable to three decades of underfunding, heavy use, a string of bad planning assumptions, and a dismissive—and incorrect—attitude held by many that air and space merely exist to support surface forces. The Space Force’s situation stems from a similar culture of being taken for granted and the view of space as a peaceful, non-warfighting domain. As such, the fledgling force has struggled to etch its mission out of limited resources and pry its core functions away from factions of the other services focused instead on their own domains.
Still, no matter what challenges the United States may be facing, air and space capabilities are fundamental to meeting them.
- Air and space superiority are essential preconditions for any successful military operation, as combined they enable freedom to attack and freedom from attack for all U.S. and allied forces.
- A long-range precision strike capability can cripple key elements of an adversary’s war-making abilities. Air forces capable of penetrating adversary defenses to deliver lethality on a repeatable and continuing basis at scale are vital to winning wars. The Air Force is the only service that possesses the types of combat aircraft that can credibly threaten and effectively conduct precision strikes against any target on the planet and, if necessary, promptly disable or destroy them. This is particularly true when it comes to long-range stealthy bombers.
- American power can be projected quickly to anywhere on the face of the earth because of the Air Force’s capability for rapid mobility. Global, regional, and local air mobility empower joint operations in the conduct of warfare.
- Exploiting the domains of air and space allow persistent, global, and accessible intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); communications; command and control; and other warfighting capabilities critical for successful joint military operations.
- The Space Force, as the only service charged with defending against enemy attacks in space, is singularly crucial for maintaining the peace, deterring aggressors, and defeating them should hostilities erupt in this domain. (…)
source: Vectors-for-the-Incoming-Trump-Defense-Team-SLIDES
Read the Full Paper >>> https://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org/air-force-and-space-force-vectors-for-the-incoming-trump-defense-team/
Read as a PDF >>> Mitchell Institute Air and Space vectors feb 2025
