At a conference outside Washington on Monday, the Air Force’s civilian leader announced she was doing something about the biggest problem facing her service.
“The Air Force is too small for what the nation expects of us,” said Heather Wilson at the annual Air Force Association Air, Space and Cyber Conference. “Three hundred twelve operational squadrons is not enough. So, what will it take? 386!”
The proposed addition of 74 new combat squadrons to the Air Force would be the biggest increase in the service since the Cold War and is specifically intended to counter growing threats from Russia and China.
“We must see the world as it is. … We must prepare,” Wilson said. “We have returned to an era of great power competition.”
Wilson acknowledges it will take time and additional funding to acquire the aircraft and recruit the pilots and additional personnel crews, but she called the planned expansion “an obligation to our countrymen.
“We aren’t naive about how long it will take us to build the support and the budget required for the force we need,” she said. “To face the world as it is, with a rapidly innovating adversary, the Air Force we need should have about 25 percent more operational squadrons in the 2025-2030 timeframe than the Air Force we have.
Wilson gave the following breakdown of squadrons needed above the current 312:
- 5 bomber
- 7 space
- 7 fighter
- 7 special operations
- 9 combat search and rescue
- 14 tanker
- 22 command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
- 2 drone
- 1 airlift
