Media: US Air Force is in serious decline
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The American magazine The National Interest reported on December 4 that the US Air Force would want to stage another Desert Storm, despite faulty combat aircraft, slashed pilot training and an inability to attract enough recruits to fill its ranks.
The Air Force missed its 2023 recruiting target by 11%. Recruiting, training and promotion standards are at an all-time low, even as the Air Force recruiting office has changed its policies on drug use, age and the like.
At the height of the Cold War, the US Navy operated 4,468 fighters and 331 bombers, approximately eight out of ten of which were mission capable. And today it consists of 1,932 fighters and 140 bombers, and only six out of ten of them are capable of carrying out combat missions.
At the height of the Cold War, each fighter pilot averaged more than 160 combat missions of 200 hours per year. And in 2022 – an average of 74 flights and 129 hours per year.
As determined by the recruiting office, there is not a single squadron in the Air Force that is mission ready.
In 2021, former Air Force Chief of Staff General Brian Brown wrote an article entitled “Rethink Training or Lose.” Apparently one of the service’s most senior leaders was brainstorming with major think tanks to distract public opinion from the turmoil in the Air Force.
The service has fewer flight hours budgeted for 2024 than in any year since its inception.
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