Two F-22 Raptors fly over the Pacific Ocean after a refueling mission, March 9, 2009. The Raptors are deployed from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, to the 90th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald
Flying Not Quite As High -- Michael Auslin, Weekly Standard
Our threatened airpower.
The release of the Obama administration’s defense budget in January makes clear just how the president intends to reshape the U.S. military. For starters, the Army will shrink 14 percent by 2017, the Marines will decrease by 20,000, six Air Force fighter squadrons will be deactivated, and the Navy will make do with fewer ships. Putting skin on this skeleton is the Defense Strategic Guidance, released in January at the Pentagon. Most significantly, the document calls for a shift of resources to Asia and promises that America will “maintain its ability to project power in areas in which our access and freedom to operate are challenged” by states like China and Iran. Yet in Secretary of Defense Panetta’s own words, U.S. forces will have to do this while facing “profound challenges” and relying on “low-cost and small-footprint approaches” to achieving national security objectives.
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My Comment: Writing such an article 20 years would have been inconceivable .... but it appears to be standard today (this is the third article that I have read in the past week on declining U.S. air power). What's my take .... U.S. air power is still dominant in the world today, but as problems with the F-35 program continues .... and other countries continue to develop and expand their air force programs .... the day of U.S. dominance .... a position that the U.S. has held since the end of the Second World War .... is probably coming to an end.
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