Latest news with #F-22Raptors
Business Insider
19-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Anduril gave everyone a behind-the-scenes look at Fury, its AI fighter built to fly with America's most fearsome aircraft
Palmer Luckey's Anduril just gave the world an inside glimpse of its new project for the US Air Force — an uncrewed fighter jet that teams up with piloted aircraft. The military startup was featured on Sunday in a CBS 60 Minutes segment, during which a few clips showed Anduril's Fury drone being assembled in a hangar or warehouse. It's not the first time the drone was shown to the public — the Air Force unveiled a test representative model on May 1. But the TV segment reveals a few more details about the drone's make. In one clip, two engineers are seen fixing a wing on the Fury, the defense startup's offering for the Air Force's collaborative combat aircraft program. That speaks to the aircraft's modular design. Anduril says the Fury, like many of its other products, is built so that its parts can be easily swapped out and customized. Both engineers are also filmed using screwdrivers to secure the wing onto the aircraft. The company has said that it wants the Fury to be manufactured at scale and possibly in many different workshops in the US instead of relying on a few highly specialized facilities. CBS also showed a conceptual clip of a scenario in which three Fury drones flew as a team in front of a crewed fighter jet and helped it strike an enemy aircraft. "These fly out ahead of manned fighters, and they're able to find the enemy first, able to engage the enemy well before a manned fighter has to be seen or is in range," Brian Schimpf, Anduril's CEO, told CBS. Such a mission is part of the Air Force's vision for its advanced fighter jets to fight alongside drones that act as "loyal wingmen," or for the drones to be used in missions on their own. It's expected to be a key feature of the F-47, the sixth-generation stealth fighter developed by Boeing. But the Air Force has also said it hopes to integrate the program with F-35 Lightning IIs and F-22 Raptors. Air Force leadership has said its priority is making the drones affordable and easy to manufacture, as it hopes to bring mass to the skies since its fleet has shrunk in favor of more advanced aircraft. Anduril was chosen to compete for the program, but the Fury hasn't clinched the contract yet. Dubbed YFQ-44A by the Air Force, the aircraft is competing for the bid with General Atomics, which is also offering a drone with a modular design. The Pentagon is expected to make early decisions during the fiscal year of 2026, which starts in October.
Business Insider
09-05-2025
- Business Insider
US Air Force's massive 53-aircraft runway exercise 'sends a message you can't ignore' to rivals like China
What is an elephant walk? Dating back to World War II, the term "elephant walk" referred to the taxiing of military aircraft en masse before taking off in single-file formations like a herd of elephants walking trunk-to-tail. Elephant walks not only demonstrate operational airpower and readiness but also train military pilots in wartime operations that involve launching a large number of sorties in a short period of time. Third-largest elephant walk in Air Force history Elephant walks typically involve a large number of aircraft, and the Kadena Air Base event on Okinawa was no exception — 53 Air Force and Navy aircraft, as well as two Army Patriot air defense batteries, participated in the runway display. The elephant walk could be the largest to ever take place in Japan, nearly twice the size of last year's 33-aircraft display at the base, which featured F-22 Raptors and F-16 Fighting Falcons. The Kadena elephant walk is among the largest ever by the US Air Force, outnumbering an elephant walk in 2020 at Hill Air Force Base in Utah that only featured F-35A Lightning II aircraft. In April 2023, 80 aircraft were displayed in an elephant walk at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. At Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, a 70-aircraft demonstration consisted of only F-15E Strike Eagles, making it the largest single-type elephant walk. Rescue helicopters, drones, and fighter jets Fighter jets made up more than half of the elephant walk, with 24 F-35As, eight F-15Es, and two Navy EA-18 Growlers. Six HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters led the herd, along with two MQ-9 Reaper drones, which are used for surveillance and precision strikes. Cargo planes, tankers, and spy planes Two MC-130J Commando II special operations cargo planes and six KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft brought up the rear of the formation. Three spy planes also made an appearance in the elephant walk — one E-3G Sentry radar surveillance aircraft, one RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft, and one P-8 Poseidon operated by the Navy for maritime patrol and reconnaissance. The formation was flanked by two US Army MIM-104 Patriot missile interceptors, which have proven to be vital assets in the US' air defense strategy against Chinese missile threats. Exercise Beverly Herd The airpower demonstration on Okinawa was an iteration of Exercise Beverly Herd, an annual military exercise that prepares US and allied forces for combat in the Pacific. Aside from the elephant walk, rescue and maintenance squadrons stationed at Kadena also practiced surveilling damage on an airfield, and Air Force civil engineers worked with Navy specialists to remove simulated unexploded ordnance from the runway. At Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, about 11 miles from Kadena, F-35 fighter squadrons from Eielson Air Force Base are also training in warfighting concepts and maneuvers focused on Agile Combat Employment, which is designed to increase lethality and survivability in combat. 'A message you can't ignore' The military exercises come as China escalates its military presence in the Pacific over Taiwan, the self-governing island which Beijing claims as its own. "An elephant walk like this sends a message you can't ignore," Chief Master Sgt. Brandon Wolfgang, 18th Wing command chief master sergeant, said in a statement. "It shows our Airmen, allies, and adversaries that we're united, capable, and ready." China's rapid military build-up has been fueling tension with other US allies on the First Island Chain, which includes Japan and the Philippines. The latter nation also has ongoing territorial disputes with China, primarily in the South China Sea. Deterrence in the Indo-Pacific The Beverly Herd exercises were among a series of military drills the US and its allies are hosting in the Indo-Pacific theater to counter growing Chinese aggression in the region. Earlier this month, the US and the Philippines held a joint exercise, Balikatan, at a strategic chokepoint south of Taiwan. China criticized the military drills, accusing the US and the Philippines of using Taiwan as an excuse to "provoke tension and confrontation." "This kind of teamwork and presence is exactly how we maintain deterrence in the Indo-Pacific," Wolfgang said of the Kadena elephant walk.
CBS News
16-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
How the U.S. is confronting the threat posed by drones swarming sensitive national security sites
Last month – the head of NORAD and NORTHCOM – the military commands that defend North America – told Congress some of those mysterious drones seen flying inside the United States may indeed have been spying. He did not say for whom. 60 Minutes has been looking into a series of eerily similar incidents – going back years – including those attention getting flyovers in New Jerse y recently. In each, drones first appeared over restricted military or civilian sites, coming and going – often literally – "under the radar." The wake-up call came just over a year ago, when drones invaded the skies above Langley Air Force base in Virginia over 17 nights, forcing the relocation of our most advanced fighter jets. Our story starts with an eyewitness and an iPhone. Jonathan Butner: Close around 7 o'clock, I would say, I started seeing these reddish, orange flashing lights that were starting to come in from the Virginia Beach area. It began slowly, like, one at a time. Jonathan Butner's close encounter with drones came on Dec. 14, 2023. He was at his family's cabin on the James River in Virginia, about 100 miles south of Washington, D.C, with a commanding view of several military installations across the water. Jonathan Butner: They started really coming in, like, almost, like, on a conveyor belt. Bill Whitaker: How many in total? Jonathan Butner: I probably saw upwards of 40 plus. When I first saw that, I was like, "Those are going directly over Langley Air Force Base." Langley is one of the most critical air bases on the East Coast – home to dozens of F-22 Raptors, the most advanced stealth fighter jets ever built. Butner says from his perch he has seen it all. Jonathan Butner: I'm very familiar with all the different types of military craft. We have Blackhawks, we have the F-22s. And these were like nothing I've ever seen. Butner took these iPhone videos of the objects coming and going for nearly an hour and a half. These are the only public videos of the drones over Langley. Bill Whitaker: Here's another one. Jonathan Butner: Yes. He shared this video with the FBI for its investigation. Bill Whitaker: And another. Jonathan Butner: Yes. Gen. Mark Kelly (retired): The reports were coming in 20-to-30 sightings, same time every evening, 30-to-45 minutes after sunset. Retired four-star Gen. Mark Kelly was the highest-ranking officer at Langley to witness the swarm. A veteran fighter pilot, Kelly went up to the roof of a squadron headquarters for an unobstructed view of the airborne invaders. Bill Whitaker: So what'd you see? Gen. Mark Kelly (retired): Well, what you saw was different sizes of incursions of aircraft. You saw different altitudes, different air speeds. Some were rather loud. Some weren't near as loud. Bill Whitaker: What was the smallest one? What was the largest one? Gen. Mark Kelly (retired): The smallest, you know you're talking about a commercial-size quadcopter. And then the largest ones are probably size what I would call a bass boat or a small car. Bill Whitaker: The size of a small car? Gen. Mark Kelly (retired): Mhmm (affirm). At the time, Gen. Glen VanHerck was joint commander of NORAD and NORTHCOM, the military commands that protect North American airspace. He has since retired. Gen. Glen VanHerck (retired): I actually provided support in the form of fighters, airborne warning and control platforms, helicopters to try to further categorize what those drones were at the time. Ten months earlier, he ordered an F-22 from Langley to shoot down that Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic after it had sailed across the U.S., but this time, he found himself ill-equipped to respond. NORAD's radar systems, designed during the Cold War to detect high-altitude air, space or missile attacks, were unable to detect low flying drones that could be seen with the naked eye. Bill Whitaker: Why don't we just shoot them down? Gen. Glen VanHerck (retired): Well, first, you have to have the capability to detect, track, identify, make sure it's not a civilian airplane flying around. If you can do that, Bill, then it becomes a safety issue for the American public. Firing missiles in our homeland is not taken lightly. Bill Whitaker: We're not able to track them? We're not able to see where they originate? Gen. Glen VanHerck (retired): No, it's the capability gap. Certainly they can come and go from any direction. The FBI is looking at potential options. But they don't have an answer right now. And there haven't been answers for similar encroachments for more than five years. In 2019, naval warships training off the California coast were shadowed for weeks by dozens of drones. For years, the pentagon did little to dispel speculation these images, taken with night vision equipment, were UFOs. But ships' logs show they were identified as drones at the time. and the Navy suspected they came from this Hong Kong flagged freighter sailing nearby, but couldn't prove it. Since then, the defense news site, The War Zone, has documented dozens of drone intrusions at sensitive infrastructure and military installations: in 2019, the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona, the largest power producer in the country; in 2024, an experimental weapons site in Southern California where defense contractors are building the next generation of stealth bombers. Last December, the Army confirmed 11 drone sightings over the Picatinny Arsenal in northern New Jersey, where advanced weapons are designed and built, which ignited a public frenzy, with sightings of unidentified flying objects all over the region. While much of the country was fixated on New Jersey, another swarm of drones was disrupting operations at an a ir base in the U.K. where U.S. nuclear weapons have been stored. Sen. Roger Wicker: Clearly, there is a military intelligence aspect of this. Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi is chairman of the Armed Services Committee that oversees the Pentagon. We talked to him this past December. Bill Whitaker: Do you believe that these drones are a spying system, a spying platform? Sen. Roger Wicker: What would a logical person conclude? Bill Whitaker: That. That these are spying incursions. Sen. Roger Wicker: Yes. And, and yet I can tell you, I am privy to, to classified briefings at the highest level. I think the Pentagon and the National Security advisors are still mystified. Bill Whitaker: Still mystified? Sen. Roger Wicker: Yes. More alarming: with drones overhead, some of the F-22s stationed at Langley were moved to a nearby air base for their own protection. There's a new wartime reality: drones that can spy can also destroy. Deep inside Russia, advanced aircraft have been destroyed by Ukrainian drones. Gen. VanHerck told us drones could do the same thing here. Gen. Glen VanHerck (retired): I have seen video of drones in various sizes flying over the F-22 flightline at Langley. Bill Whitaker: What's your reaction to that? They could drop ordnance on them, drop bombs on, they could crash into them to disable them. Was that a concern? Gen. Glen VanHerck (retired): Absolutely it's a concern. A small UAS, or drones, can do a myriad of missions. President Biden was informed of the Langley intrusions, and meetings were held at the White House to figure out how to bring the drones down. But after 17 nights, the drone visitations stopped. A senior official in the Biden White House later downplayed the incident to 60 Minutes, saying it was likely the work of hobbyists. Bill Whitaker: From what you saw, did you rule out that these might be hobbyists sending these drones up? Gen. Glen VanHerck (retired): No. It would be my assessment they weren't hobbyists because of the magnitude of the events, the sizes of some of the drones, and the duration. Bill Whitaker: So what's going on? Gen. Glen VanHerck (retired): Well, I wish I had the answer. It certainly could have a foreign nexus, a threat nexus. They could be doing anything, from surveilling critical infrastructure, just to the point of embarrassing us from the fact that they can do this on a day-to-day basis and then we're not able to do anything about it. In overseas war zones, the U.S. military has broad authority to bring down menacing drones with gunfire, missiles, and electronic jamming. Here at home, any of those actions would pose a threat to civilians on the ground and in the air. Gen. Gregory Guillot: Well, we certainly need new systems to counter this threat. A year ago, Gen. Gregory Guillot – a combat veteran – took control of NORAD and NORTHCOM. He ordered a 90-day assessment of operations and says the drones – or UAVs – at Langley became the centerpiece. Bill Whitaker: We're the most powerful military on the face of the earth. And yet, drones could fly over a major Air Force base and we couldn't stop them? How is that possible? Gen. Gregory Guillot: Well, I think the, the threat got ahead of our ability to detect and, and track the threat. I think all eyes were, rightfully, overseas, where UAVs were being used on one-way attack to attack U.S. and coalition service members. And the threat in the U.S. probably caught us by surprise a little bit. Bill Whitaker: As it stands today, could you detect a swarm of drones flying over or flying into the airspace at Langley? Could you detect that today? Gen. Gregory Guillot: At low altitude, probably not with your standard FAA or surveillance radars. Complicating his efforts: bureaucracy. When the drones flew outside the perimeter of Langley Air Force Base, other agencies had jurisdiction: the Coast Guard, FAA, FBI, and local police. There was no one agency in charge. Bill Whitaker: So what did you determine went on at Langley? Gen. Gregory Guillot: Well, that-- that-- that investigation is still ongoing. So I don't think w-- we know-- entirely what happened. Bill Whitaker: You know, when we hear things from the White House that it's not deemed a threat, it seems to me that this is, alarming. I mean, this is kind of hair on fire time. Gen. Gregory Guillot: It is alarming. And, I would say that our hair is on fire here in, in NORTHCOM, in a controlled way. And we're moving out extremely quickly. This past November, Gen. Guillot was given the authority to cut through the red tape and coordinate counter drone efforts across multiple government agencies. He says new, more sensitive radar systems are being installed at strategic bases, and NORTHCOM is developing what it calls fly-away kits with the latest anti-drone technology – to be delivered to bases besieged by drones. Gen. Gregory Guillot: My goal is inside of a year that we would have the flyaway kit capability to augment the services and the installations if they're necessary. Bill Whitaker: So within a year, were Langley to happen again, there'd be some ability to respond? Gen. Gregory Guillot: That's my goal. His predecessor, Glen VanHerck, says the Pentagon, White House, and Congress have underestimated this massive vulnerability for far too long. Gen. Glen VanHerck (retired): It's been one year since Langley had their drone incursion and we don't have the policies and laws in place to deal with this? That's not a sense of urgency. Bill Whitaker: Why do you think that is? Gen. Glen VanHerck (retired): I think it's because there's a perception that this is fortress America: two oceans on the east and west, with friendly nations north and south, and nobody's gonna attack our homeland. It's time we move beyond that assumption.
CBS News
16-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Drone swarms inside the U.S. could be spying — and the ability to detect, track them is lagging
Officials in Washington have underestimated the threat posed by drones in U.S. airspace, despite several cases of mysterious drone swarms over sensitive military sites, warned Glen VanHerck, the former joint commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command. Elusive drones flew over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia over 17 nights in December 2023, well before drones over New Jersey captured the attention of the nation late last year, yet the U.S. still doesn't have policies and laws in place to deal with the swarms, retired U.S. Air Force general Glen VanHerck said. A senior official in the Biden White House later downplayed the Langley intrusions to 60 Minutes as likely the work of hobbyists, but VanHerck did not believe they were hobbyists based on the evidence he saw. "It certainly could have a foreign nexus, a threat nexus," VanHerck said. "They could be doing anything, from surveilling critical infrastructure, just to the point of embarrassing us from the fact that they can do this on a day-to-day basis and then we're not able to do anything about it." Last month, VanHerck's successor, Gen. Gregory Guillot, testified during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that he needs increased authority to better protect military installations from drones. "The primary threat I see for them in the way they've been operating is detection and perhaps surveillance of sensitive capabilities on our installations," Guillot said. He did not say who was operating the drones. Drone swarm incidents date back years U.S. Navy warships training off the California coast were shadowed by dozens of drones for weeks in 2019. For years, the Pentagon did little to dispel speculation that they were UFOs, even referring videos of them to their "UAP Task Force" for analysis, but ships' logs show they were identified as drones at the time. The Navy suspected the drones came from a Hong Kong-flagged freighter sailing nearby, but couldn't prove it. Since then, The War Zone, a defense news site, has documented dozens of drone intrusions at sensitive infrastructure and military installations, including the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona and an experimental weapons site in Southern California where defense contractors are building the next generation of stealth bombers. In December of 2023, Jonathan Butner was at his family cabin on the James River in Virginia when he spotted what he describes as dozens of mysterious orbs over Langley Air Force Base, one of the most critical on the East Coast — home to dozens of F-22 Raptors. Butner said he's familiar with different types of military aircraft. What he saw on Dec. 14, 2023, was unlike anything he had seen before. "They started really coming in, like, almost, like, on a conveyor belt," Butner said. He took iPhone videos of the objects coming and going for nearly an hour and a half. Butner says he shared the video with the FBI for its investigation. Retired four-star Gen. Mark Kelly was the highest-ranking officer at Langley to witness the swarm. A veteran fighter pilot, he identified them as drones, and says they varied in size, speed and altitude. "The smallest, you know, you're talking about a commercial-size quadcopter," Kelly said. "And then the largest ones are probably [the] size [of] what I would call a bass boat or a small car." Then, late last year in northern New Jersey, the Army confirmed 11 drone sightings starting in November over the Picatinny Arsenal where advanced weapons are designed and built. The sightings ignited a public frenzy, sparking reports of drones all over the region. While much of the U.S. was fixated on New Jersey, another swarm of drones was disrupting operations at an air base in the U.K. where U.S. nuclear weapons have been stored. Prior to his Inauguration, President Trump promised to get to the bottom of the mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey and along the East Coast. In her first White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt relayed an update she said was directly from President Trump: the drones were " authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons" and were "not the enemy." Why the drones are a concern Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said it's clear there's a military intelligence aspect to the drone swarms. When 60 Minutes interviewed him in December, he said that the Pentagon and national security advisers are mystified by the swarms. There's also a new wartime reality: drones that can spy can also destroy. In Russia and Ukraine, advanced aircraft have been destroyed by drones. Drones could do the same thing in the U.S., Gen. VanHerck said. "Absolutely it's a concern. A small UAS (unmanned aircraft systems), or drones, can do a myriad of missions," he said. Some of the F-22s stationed at Langley were moved to a nearby air base for their own protection. Hard to detect, track, shoot down VanHerck, who was charged with protecting North American airspace at the time of the Langley incident, found himself ill-equipped to respond to the drone swarm. NORAD's radar systems, designed during the Cold War to detect high-altitude air, space or missile attacks, were unable to detect low-flying drones that could be seen with the naked eye. "They can come and go from any direction," he said. "The FBI is looking at potential options. But they don't have an answer right now." In overseas war zones, the U.S. military has broad authority to bring down menacing drones with gunfire, missiles and electronic jamming. Here at home, any of those actions would pose a threat to civilians on the ground and in the air. "Firing missiles in our homeland is not taken lightly," VanHerck said. Guillot, who took control of NORAD and NORTHCOM last February, ordered a 90-day assessment of operations. He said a new strategy is needed to counter the threat of drones. "I think the threat got ahead of our ability to detect and track the threat. I think all eyes were, rightfully, overseas, where UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were being used on one-way attack to attack U.S. and coalition service members." Federal Aviation Administration and NORAD surveillance technologies still lack the capabilities to detect a drone swarm at a low-altitude over a military facility in the U.S., he said. In addition to the technological challenges, there's the bureaucracy. When the drones flew outside the perimeter of Langley Air Force Base, other agencies had jurisdiction: the Coast Guard, FAA, FBI, and local police. There was no one agency in charge. This past November, Guillot was given the authority to cut through the red tape and coordinate counter drone efforts across multiple government agencies. He says new, more sensitive radar systems are being installed at strategic bases. NORTHCOM is developing the latest anti-drone technology to be delivered quickly by air to bases besieged by drones. "My goal is inside of a year, that we would have the flyaway kit capability to augment the services and the installations if they're necessary," Guillot said. His predecessor, VanHerck, doesn't believe there's been a sense of urgency around the issue. "I think it's because there's a perception that this is fortress America: two oceans on the east and west, with friendly nations north and south, and nobody's gonna attack our homeland,'" he said. "It's time we move beyond that assumption."
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Air Force budget cuts may open old wounds with Congress
The Air Force wants to accelerate its plans to retire old and outdated aircraft to meet Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's order for services to cut and reallocate a portion of their spending. But the service's previous efforts to cut planes like the A-10 Warthog and older F-22 Raptors have shown that making such plans is easy, while actually seeing them through is far trickier. That is because lawmakers who have the power to block cuts they disagree with, or which they fear may harm their constituents, have stymied multiple administrations' efforts to tame and reshape Pentagon budgets. If the Trump administration — with its focus on cutting perceived government waste — is able to break through the logjam on Capitol Hill and enact significant reductions to the Air Force's legacy fleet, it will have accomplished something that has eluded previous administrations. Hegseth last week ordered military leaders to draw up plans to free up 8% of the fiscal 2026 budget the Biden administration prepared before leaving office, to excise 'woke ... non-lethal programs' and use that money to fund 'peace through strength' priorities of the new administration. Numerically speaking, the reduction mandate could amount to more than $17 billion in cuts for the Department of the Air Force, $15 billion of which would come from the Air Force alone, with the rest drawn from the sister service, Space Force. 'It's not a cut,' Hegseth said in a video posted online. 'It's refocusing and reinvesting existing funds into building a force that protects you, the American people.' But whether they are called cuts or reinvestments, some defense experts worry it won't be as simple as Hegseth males it sound. Doug Birkey, the executive director for the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Power Studies, said the Air Force has already been stretched thin for years, and finding 8% of fat to cut will be difficult. 'For a service that has already cut to the bone over the past 30 years … they have already gone after the easy money,' Birkey said. 'That was gone years and years ago.' Besides eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a fixation for the Trump team, Hegseth also put climate science spending — or 'climate change BS,' as he calls it — on the chopping block for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, headed by billionaire Elon Musk. Under previous administrations, the Pentagon has studied how climate change worsens natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods, which have severely damaged installations such as Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Cutting DEI and climate efforts alone may not amount to much in finding 8% of the budget for reprogramming, said Heather Penney, a retired F-16 pilot and senior resident fellow at Mitchell. 'It's going to be nuanced,' Penney said of cuts on that magnitude. 'It's not just going to be DEI, because I'm not sure that there's $15 billion worth of DEI and climate change programs. I think the service is going to have to look at some of the long-term [research and development] they have.' But cutting research and development would be tricky, Penney warned, because those efforts are crucial investments to make sure the Air Force's capabilities are not outpaced by adversaries in the future. The Next Generation Air Dominance platform and its accompanying high-tech engines are examples of the kind of research the Air Force should not abandon, Birkey said. A sixth-generation fighter is necessary to get the most out of the service's collaborative combat aircraft vision, he said, and the Air Force has skimped on modernization so long that it can't miss another generation of fleet upgrades. Curtailing the Air Force's F-35A buy or T-7 Red Hawk trainer program would also be a mistake, Penney argued, but the service could delay its efforts to develop a next-generation refueling tanker. The Air Force's budget proposal for 2025, released last year, called for the service to get $188 billion in funding, 40% of which — or $75.6 billion — would pay for operations and maintenance. Military personnel costs, including salaries and benefits, accounted for another $41.7, or 22%, and another $37.7 billion was earmarked for research, development, test and evaluation. Procurement accounted for $29 billion, or 16%, and the budget called for another $4 billion for military construction. The Space Force, a relatively fledgling service still working to stand itself up, also doesn't have nearly enough room to trim 8% of its spending, Penney said. That would cut nearly $2.4 billion from the $29.4 billion budget the Biden administration proposed for the Space Force in 2025. 'The Space Force has no fat to give,' Penney said. 'They have to grow, and they're as lean as they possibly can get.' Hegseth said nuclear modernization programs would be among 17 critical functions exempted from the cuts. The Air Force is now working on the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, the successor to its Minuteman III nuclear missile, and the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. The Air Force's collaborative combat aircraft program, which aims to create autonomous drone wingmen that fly alongside crewed fighters, is also exempt, Air and Space Forces Magazine reported. But while Hegseth turned his ire on a perceived excess of 'woke' Biden-era programs as ideal areas to cut, the Air Force is eyeing portions of its fleet the service feels is outdated. 'The Air Force is focused on retaining our desired warfighting capabilities while proposing the accelerated divestiture of legacy systems that are no longer relevant and consume limited funding and personnel,' an Air Force official told Defense News. 'The Air Force previously proposed divesting a number of weapon systems but has only recently received congressional authorization to retire the aging A-10 jets.' Air Force leaders have consistently said the service does not want to hold on to aircraft that aren't well suited for a future fight, and repeatedly asked lawmakers during budget processes to allow them to retire old planes. This is intended to free up money, airmen and other resources needed to bring on modernized aircraft like the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter. The Air Force's original budget plan for 2025 called for cutting 250 aircraft, which the service said would save about $2 billion. But in several cases, the Air Force and Congress have not seen eye-to-eye on where the service's fleet priorities should be. And even when the Air Force has been able to trim its fleet, Birkey said, it hasn't always leveraged those savings effectively. 'Congress has historically been very, very uncomfortable with the capacity reductions that the Air Force has pursued, and the Air Force has not succeeded in harnessing a divest-to-invest strategy to turn the corner on necessary modernization,' Birkey said. 'I have yet to find the old car I can sell that will free up enough cash to get the new one I want.' The Air Force isn't replacing retired aircraft with new planes on a one-to-one basis, Penney said, which is slowly eroding its ability to carry out certain missions. 'Once you give that [kind of combat capability] up, it's very hard to get back,' Penney said. 'Trying to grow your way out of a hole is something the Air Force has not been able to do.' Birkey predicted this time around, Congress would be reluctant to sign off on steep fleet cuts to meet Hegseth's goals. The battle over retiring the A-10 was perhaps the most rancorous recent dispute between Congress and the Air Force, although lawmakers in recent years have relented and allowed the Air Force to start retiring the Warthog. The rugged attack jet was frequently employed during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and against the Islamic State to provide close air support to friendly troops and destroy enemy targets. As those wars wound down, the Air Force sought to retire the A-10. Officials said the A-10′s low-and-slow style would make it vulnerable to attacks from an advanced foe such as China, and it would not be survivable in a future war. But the A-10 had influential backers in Congress — in particular, the late Sen. John McCain, whose state of Arizona was the home of a major A-10 base. The dispute over the A-10 reached a fever pitch during an infamous 2016 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, in which McCain lambasted then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh over the department's retirement plans. Congress and the Air Force's dispute over the A-10 thawed in recent years, and lawmakers began allowing those planes to be retired in 2023. The Air Force intends to have all A-10s retired by the end of the decade. More recently, the Air Force has sought to retire 32 Block 20 F-22s that are not able to fly in combat, and would cost too much to get ready for battle. But Congress has repeatedly blocked those retirement efforts.
