Budget cuts impact US ability to fight the enemy, Air Force general warns

[txradioguy]

In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Gen. Mark Welsh, the head of the U.S. Air Force, warns that severe defense budget cuts will impact U.S. air superiority against enemies that the nation may not be thinking about right now.

“China and Russia are two good examples of countries who will be fielding capability in the next three to five years; if they stay on track, that is better than what we currently have in many areas,” Welsh said during a three-day visit to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

“Fighter aircraft in the next three to five years that have more capability than what we currently have sitting on the ramp. The F-35 will stay a generation ahead of them. F-22 will, too. Everything else we have will not stay ahead. The gap has closed.”

Until the first night of the air war against ISIS in Syria last October, the F-22 had never been used in combat. It's stealth, flies nearly twice the speed of sound and Fox News has since learned the F-22 has led nearly every air combat mission over Syria since.

“I think we saw a lot of what the F-22 can do, but you certainly didn't see all it can do,” Welsh said.
 

Welsh, who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1976, is concerned about the future.

“By 8 to 10 years from now, we could be facing as many as 50 countries who use Russian and Chinese top-end fighters today,” Welsh said. When asked how much of Russia and China’s innovations in fighter jet technology is based on stolen U.S. technology, Welsh just smiled.

"When you look at pictures you go, ‘man -- that looks familiar,’" Welsh said during the interview with Fox.

And budget cuts have trimmed more than planes.

“We are 200,000 people fewer in the active component. That's 40 percent less than we were during the first Gulf War. It's a dramatically different Air Force," Welsh explained.

“We have to stop this drawdown and build a red line right now in the size of the active force.”

http://conservativecave.com/index.php?action=post;board=4.0

[dmf777]

We certainly should fix and raise our defense budget, right after we get the money to do it. We are $18,000,000,000,000 (that's 18 trillion dollars) in debt and climbing. We can't keep raising budgets and spending more if the risk is higher than the reward.
If we go bankrupt because of a prettier plane that may or may not give as an advantage half a decade from now, it won't be so great of an idea anymore.

[txradioguy]

We certainly should fix and raise our defense budget, right after we get the money to do it. We are $18,000,000,000,000 (that's 18 trillion dollars) in debt and climbing.

The answer isn't cutting an already shrinking defense budget.  The answer is reigning in and reforming...if not doing away with entirely all those pretty little welfare programs you Progressives love.

We can't keep raising budgets and spending more if the risk is higher than the reward.

We aren't.  The budget is shrinking.  Our Army is as small as what we had in the inter-war years of the 1920's.  And your fellow PRogressives plan on making it smaller.

We've abandoned the two war strategy we've held as part ouf our National Defense plan for almost 70 years.

Why?  So your fellow Progressive can pay for all the social welfare you're screaming for.

Like I said...you can't have it both ways.

If we go bankrupt because of a prettier plane that may or not give as an advantage half a decade from now, it won't be so great of an idea anymore.

You should really quit before you embarass yourself even further.

[DumbAss Tanker]

It's kind of hard to keep a straight face and say it's necessary for 'Air superiority' (Actually the goal is air dominance) when we already have it, totally uncontested and with no prospect of that changing, over the only enemy we are willing to take on for the next two decades, and aren't even using what we have for a serious, major effort against them.

[thundley4]

We certainly should fix and raise our defense budget, right after we get the money to do it. We are $18,000,000,000,000 (that's 18 trillion dollars) in debt and climbing. We can't keep raising budgets and spending more if the risk is higher than the reward.
If we go bankrupt because of a prettier plane that may or may not give as an advantage half a decade from now, it won't be so great of an idea anymore.

Yet every year the money spent on welfare goes up, and there is no return on that wasted money. 18% of the federal budget goes to the military.  7% is spent on paying interest.  That amount has ballooned under Uncle Obammy.

[obumazombie]

What are the odds that dmf voted at least twice for owebuma ?