CSBA in the News

The Pentagon should plan to build 170-plus Long Range Strike – Bomber aircraft rather than the 80-100 in current plans, and should reconsider its $550-million unit cost ceiling for the aircraft, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The report’s authors are veteran USAF strategist Lt Gen David Deptula, who retired as the service’s chief of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs in 2010, and the CSBA’s Mark Gunzinger.

While the United States has built up a capable portfolio of combat airpower that has provided a key advantage over its adversaries since World War II, the Pentagon and Congress must rebalance this force, argued the authors of a new Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments report on Monday. Speaking at an event sponsored by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in Arlington, Va., Mitchell Institute Dean David Deptula and CSBA Senior Fellow Mark Gunzinger said the time to re-examine US combat air forces is now, as challenges to the traditional ways America projects power are proliferating. With the rise of anti-access, area-denial threats, and a growing emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region, Gunzinger said, future needs focus more acutely on fielding new long-range intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance airplanes and strike aircraft that could give the United States greater ability to project power farther and more quickly. Slowly, Defense Department officials are realizing they need to address these areas as evidenced by the priority given to the Air Force’s Long-Range Strike Bomber, said the pair. But the Navy also needs to invest in stealthy, refuelable unmanned combat airplanes to keep aircraft carriers relevant in A2/AD environments.

Given the proliferation of guided ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-satellite weapons, cyber threats and integrated air defense systems, “U.S. air dominance in future wars cannot be taken for granted,” argue Mark Gunzinger and David Deptula in a new report titled, “Toward a Balanced Combat Air Force,” which is being released today by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

A high-stakes battle is underway in Washington over launching the U.S. government’s most sophisticated national security satellites.

The Pentagon is looking at new ways to disperse its forces throughout the Asia-Pacific as military planners explore alternatives to the large US super bases in the region vulnerable to cruise missile strikes.