Staff Sgt. Kyle Poston, 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, oversees engine maintenance on an EC-130 Compass Call Jan. 18, 2017 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. Kyle Poston, 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, oversees engine maintenance on an EC-130 Compass Call Jan. 18, 2017 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Katherine Spessa

US Air Force 'Urgently' Needs Funds By April

Pass a bill, top leaders tell Congress, warning another delay would 'reverse' badly needed expansions, upgrades, and readiness needed to fight the ISIS War.

Our joint force is fighting ISIS and deterring aggression globally while protecting our homeland every day. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., we’re quickly approaching the day when our defense funding authorities will expire with the end of the current çontinuing resolution, or CR. To avoid further damage to Air Force readiness levels, we need a defense appropriation by the end of April.

A continuing resolution for the last five months of this budget year would reverse our on-going efforts to restore Air Force readiness and modernize to meet rapidly evolving global threats. Four years ago, sequestration forced the Air Force to ground flying squadrons and reduce training to dangerous levels, resulting in reducing our ability to generate air, space, and cyber capabilities on the timelines and in the capacity needed by combatant commanders.

Our Air Force is the smallest, oldest, and busiest it has ever been.

We urgently need a defense appropriation that restores and rebuilds our nation’s Air Force. Twenty-six years of sustained global combat operations, along with budgetary turbulence, have eroded our full-spectrum war-fighting capabilities. We are concerned our competitive advantage against highly-capable adversaries is increasingly at risk. We need to greatly increase our manning levels, modernize weapon systems, and invest in associated infrastructure.

The impact of uncertainties about our budget are exacerbated by the fact that our Air Force is the smallest, oldest, and busiest it has ever been. Specifically, to absorb a significant reduction in our planned budget, the CR would likely cause us to:

  • Cut precious flying hours again while we’re heavily engaged in the fight against ISIS   
  • Defer important maintenance at our large repair facilities known as depots, hindering our ability to keep an already stressed fleet in the air
  • Halt our efforts to grow active-duty Airmen above 317,000 this year, a necessity given the many tasks we carry out around the globe
  • Limit critical facility repairs at worldwide operational locations to life, health, and safety only
  • Limit upgrades to our key programs, such space technologies and our remotely piloted aircraft fleet – in great demand around the world.

These are only a few of the potential impacts of a year-long CR.

We are working closely with Congress and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and his team to put the Air Force on a readiness and resource recovery path. The Air Force needs to get bigger and healthier to meet the many global demands. Every day, hundreds of our aerial refuelers, fighters, bombers, transport, and surveillance aircraft fly combat missions, counter ISIS and other terrorists, deter aggression globally, and protect our homeland. Meanwhile, thousands of Airmen are processing intelligence and providing other critical support for these missions, working with joint forces world-wide. Finally, thousands more operate constellations of satellites and stand nuclear watch 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  Your Air Force is always there.

We need a defense appropriation to help restore U.S. Air Force readiness levels and build force capacity and capabilities to counter emerging threats. We are confident we can do this together. The interests of the nation will be well served. Our men and women in uniform are counting on it.

Lisa Disbrow is the acting secretary of the United States Air Force and Gen. Dave Goldfein is the chief of staff of the Air Force.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.