This report uses the FY2022 budget request for the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide a general orientation to the composition and activities of that agency. The report divides the budget request into sections that largely correspond to the major divisions (or...
Airpower Blog
The Department of Defense (DOD) Budget: An Orientation
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Old and Bold Pilots
Founder Story by Kip Cooper reprinted from The San Diego Union Newspaper, published Monday, January 29, 1979. There are pilots who are old and there are pilots who are bold, but there are no pilots who are both old and bold. This is the Navy way of...
Emerging Military Technologies: Background and Issues for Congress
Members of Congress and Pentagon officials are increasingly focused on developing emerging military technologies to enhance U.S. national security and keep pace with U.S. competitors. TheU.S. military has long relied upon technological superiority to ensure its...
Report to Congress on Air Force Tanker Strategy
As discussed in the CRS report Air Force KC-46A Pegasus Tanker, the Air Force is in the process of replacing its fleet of 396 KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft, built in the 1950s and 60s, and 59 KC-10 Extenders, which entered service in 1981. Recent...
Report to Congress on F-15EX Eagle II Fighter
On March 11, 2021, the U.S. Air Force took delivery of its first F-15EX Eagle II fighter. The Eagle II program is intended to deliver 144 aircraft to replace aging F-15Cs, most of which are in the Air National Guard. The Trump Administration’s FY2020 budget proposal...
Passing the Baton Across Generations
LTC Arthur Trujillo and CWO Jess Findley looking at the hole ripped in their UH-1 Helicopter after a flight into Tran Dai, RVN in April of 1971 Lt. Col. Paul “Truman” Trujillo, USAF (Ret.) had wanted to join the military for as long as he could remember. Inspired by...
Navy Aviation Vision 2030-2035
The National Defense Strategy (NDS) identifies a complex global security environment characterized by overt challenges to the current international order and the resurgence of long-term, strategic competition among nations. It calls for a lethal, agile, resilient, and...
Defense Primer: Geography, Strategy, and U.S. Force Design
Most of the world’s people, resources, and economic activity are located not in the Western Hemisphere, but in the other hemisphere, particularly Eurasia. In response to this basic feature of world geography, U.S. policymakers for the last several decades have chosen...
Summer Vacation in an L-39
What do pilots and Peter Pan have in common? They are forever young in their mind’s eye. Thirty years after retiring from the Air Force, I decided it was time to get checked out in another jet. Hanging out with fellow aviators in the Red Star Pilots Association...
A Conversation with 1stLt Paige McFarland
Interview Conducted by Taylor E. Watson on 13 September 2021 1stLt Joe McFarland, USMC; 1stLt Paige McFarland, USMC; and CAPT Mike Denkler, USN (Ret) Our most recent Daedalian Top Grad, 1stLt Paige McFarland, USMC earned her Wings of Gold as a Naval Aviator 10 Sep...
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