David Axe over at Danger Room, in a fine display of alliteration, puts the latest mishap into perspective. B-1 Crash: Bad Year for Bombers
In fairness, the Air Force has been deadly serious about force modernization for several years now. Less serious are the service’s detractors in Congress and at the Pentagon, though many legitimately question the need for hyper-expensive weapon systems in a time of counterinsurgencies, low-level conflict, and small wars. I’d really like to see the Air Force just come out and declare a single mission and purpose one of these days. They’re in bad need of focus. Insisting that we need F-22s and new hyper-sonic bombers to win the war on terror isn’t credible. But there will always exist a need for a strategic vanguard against powerful nation-states, irrespective of the sole-superpower times that we live in. That’s the Air Force’s bread and butter, and if the service was to simply come out and say “We exist to protect America against rival nations” instead of acting like they’re the very keystone of non-kinetic operations, they’d likely have an easier time of modernizing and replacing their ancient fleet of aircraft.
