From Alex Grynkewich, War on the Rocks: "We will require fresh thinking to control the skies of the future. Gaining and maintaining air superiority in 2030 will require new concepts of operation. It will require a rejection of platform-based thinking that yearns for a “silver bullet” solution. And it will require airmen and joint leaders able to apply operational art across domains. While these intellectual foundations are certainly the most critical aspects of success in 2030, it is also true that concepts of operation dependent on outdated technology will fail. Any family of capabilities able to solve the 2030 problem will ultimately be comprised of platforms across all domains and from all services. If airmen and joint leaders in 2030 lack key capabilities, it will not matter how skilled they are in warfighting or operational art. The most brilliant commander today, equipped only with the technologies of yesterday, is doomed to fail in combat."
From Robert Beckhusen, War Is Boring: “The RAND Corporation, a California-based think tank closely tied to the U.S. Air Force, recently compiled statistics on A-10s in Afghanistan, with the goal of studying how they performed and how the Air Force could replace them in the future. It should come as no surprise that as the war continued, the A-10 took on a larger share of missions — comprising “one-half of all the CAS [close air support] missions … despite representing a small fraction of the total aircraft in theater,” according to RAND.”
When the Air Force looks at its need for bombers across the globe, it weighs its options — not necessarily by munition or nuclear deterrent — but by readiness, the service’s top general said Tuesday. It’s part of a larger discussion about when B-1B Lancers should be sent back into the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told reporters during a breakfast in Washington, D.C. – Defense Tech