US Air Force plan to retire 1,000 aircraft leads Congress to raise national security concerns

The US Air Force’s (USAF) plan to phase out more than 1,000 aircraft over the coming five years has become a cause of concern for the US Senate. Although the branch intended to replace part of its ageing inventory with new platforms, it cut $2 billion in procurement programmes in its FY2025 budget request.

During a recent hearing at the US Senate Committee on Appropriations, Republican senator Susan Collins (Maine) claimed the cuts, which could result in capability gaps in both the short and medium terms, would lead to “a much smaller air force”.

“Each budget request must account for both the threats we are facing now and that are projected into the future,” Collins pointed out. “What I know with certainty is that the threats facing our country and our military are growing.”

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US Air Force to cut $2 billion of investments in aircraft in FY2025

In its FY2025 proposal, the service allocated funds for the purchase of 73 platforms, consisting of 42 F-35 multirole combat aircraft, 15 KC-46A Pegasus tankers, seven T-7A Red Hawk trainers, eight MH-139A Grey Wolf multirole helicopters and one commercial-derivative aircraft under the C-40 Fleet Expansion programme.

On the other hand, the USAF said it expected to phase out 310 aeroplanes in FY2024 and another 129 over the next fiscal year. It would comprise helicopters and AEW&C, combat, ISR, transport and training aircraft that have been in operation for more than three decades.

The aircraft will include A-10s, A-29s (EMB-314 Super Tucano), B-1s, C-130Hs, E-3s (AWACS), E-8s, EC-130Hs, EC-130Js, F-15C/Ds, F-22s, HH-60Gs, KC-10s and T-1As. Almost half of the USAF fleet has passed its design service life.

“Holding on to increasingly ageing and expensive to maintain and less cost-effective assets really doesn't help us,” Frank Kendall, secretary of the Air Force, asserted.

USAF chief of staff Gen. David W. Allvin explained that the branch was seeking “the right capability” instead of quantity. 

“Our focus is to ensure that we have the right quality to be able to show the survivability and the ability to compete in highly contested environments,” Allvin remarked. 

A fleet of C-130Hs at the 179th Airlift Wing, Mansfield, Ohio. (Photo: USAF)

According to US DoD report FY2024 Defense Force Structure Changes Exhibit, the USAF five-year divestment plan would enable the service to save nearly US$3 billion in sustainment efforts. Ageing aircraft should be replaced in the short and medium term by new platforms such as B-21 Raider bombers, KC-46A Pegasus tankers and F-35s.

From Collins’ perspective, the service has been seeking to phase out “more than 1,000 aircraft while procuring fewer than one aircraft for every two jets that are being retired”.

For the next fiscal year, the service earmarked $19.8 billion for aircraft procurement and upgrade efforts. To cover the same area in FY2024, however, the service allocated a $22 billion fund. Members of Congress believe that a $2.2 billion reduction in budget would result in capability gaps.

“None of us can gloss over the fact that this budget request would result in a real decrease in funding available for the Air Force and Space Force to buy aircraft and weapons,” Collins pointed out.

Democrat senator Jon Tester (Montana), meanwhile, argued that the FY2025 proposal was “inadequate”.

“We have got to figure out a way to make sure that, in this dangerous time – which I believe is the most dangerous time in the world since the early 1960s – that we give you (the USAF) the money you need and then hold you accountable to make sure you spend it correctly,” Tester remarked.

USAF has cut proposed funds for the purchase of F-35s in FY2025. (Photo: US Air Force)

The proposal for the next fiscal year reduced investments in various acquisition, modification and modernisation programmes such as F-35 multirole aircraft, F-15EX fighter aircraft, C-17A heavy-lift, strategic transport aircraft, C-32A executive airlift transportation platform, C-37A transport system and C-135 tanker.

“What are the consequences if Congress does not restore this $2 billion reduction? What risks are we assuming given that China's air force continues to grow?” Collins questioned.

Kendall pointed out that, in order to preserve modernisation, the USAF has “marginally reduced” the resources for purchase efforts, noting that the force had “sustained our foundational accounts levels”.

Allvin, in turn, noted the branch was restricted by the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) and was “focused on getting the maximum capacity, the most capable platforms and systems” that it can have “because it has gone beyond just counting aircraft”.

“If we have a large quantity but they have a reduced chance of survival, then we are actually putting more airmen in harm's way,” Allvin added.

Collins, however, claimed that the war in Ukraine had been showing that “quantity matters”, not just quality and capability, “particularly when we are facing as many threats in such diverse places as we are”.

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