Douglas Barrie
The problem facing the United States, and by inference also some of its closest allies, is as broad as it is long: what kind of air (and space) power will the US require to prevail against a peer competitor in the middle of this century? It is a question that Frank Kendall, the now former secretary of the US Air Force (USAF), grappled with in the ‘The Department of the Air Force in 2050’ Congressional Committee report.
The report starkly projects the extent of the likely challenge from China, which, by 2050, the Department of the Air Force (DAF) sees as a peer competitor on a global scale. ‘Today, the United States is in a race for military technological superiority with China’, the report contends. This competition will shape fundamentally any confrontation in the air and space domains, as well as the types of platforms, capabilities and personnel needed to win.
Wheel brake applied
The report further illuminates Kendall’s July 2024 decision to re-examine the assumptions underpinning the crewed combat element of the USAF’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) programme. While the report only mentions NGAD twice, the text serves in part as an unclassified explanation of Kendall’s thinking and concerns.
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