{"id":14781,"date":"2018-09-18T23:04:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T23:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/18\/does-the-air-force-really-need-74-more-squadrons-it-depends-on-who-you-ask\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:13:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:13:48","slug":"does-the-air-force-really-need-74-more-squadrons-it-depends-on-who-you-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/2018\/09\/18\/does-the-air-force-really-need-74-more-squadrons-it-depends-on-who-you-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the Air Force really need 74 more squadrons? It depends on who you ask"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson\u2019s<\/a> call for growing the service from its current size of 312 operational squadrons to 386 by 2030 in preparation for a possible conflict with Russia and China faced some scrutiny at a forum for Air Force leadership Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nearly 25 percent increase in squadrons is the lynchpin in the service\u2019s \u201cAir Force We Need\u201d<\/a> proposal, but policy experts appeared a bit more conservative on how much of that increase is actually necessary and feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s more compelling as a vision than a realistic plan,\u201d Michael O\u2019Hanlon, a senior fellow on defense policy at the Brookings Institution, said Tuesday. \u201cWhether you\u2019re for or against it, a 25 percent increase at a time when we\u2019re not actually at war, in a major sense, with a great power is dramatic. It may be the best way to prevent such a war, and reinforce deterrence, but it is dramatic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal is intended to provide the assets the Air Force needs to fight peer adversaries<\/a>, defend the homeland, deter nuclear war, counter rogue nation-states <\/a>and fight violent extremists<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re wondering how we pay for it, that\u2019s a discussion of its own, but I think this is a great and bold move on [Wilson\u2019s] part, and I stand behind it as best we can,” said John Venable, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and retired Air Force fighter pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein with Vice President. Mike Pence, who made a surprise visit during the Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber conference held at the Gaylord National Resort & Conference Center in Oxon Hill, MD. (Alan Lessig\/Staff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wilson delivered the proposal during her keynote address at the Air Force Association\u2019s Air, Space and Cyber Conference outside Washington, D.C., this week. Her speech referenced massive Russian military exercises, China\u2019s development of its first aircraft carrier, as well the militarization of islands in the South China Sea to extend the reach of China\u2019s long-range bombers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, O\u2019Hanlon said, Wilson\u2019s proposal should not be taken literally, but instead as more of an aspiration that adds to the debate of how to approach a new era of great power competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably a place we\u2019re not going to get, and probably a place we don\u2019t quite need to get, even though I recognize its value as an intellectual contribution by the Air Force,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in that sense, it\u2019s probably in the same realm as the 355-ship Navy aspiration<\/a> … which I don\u2019t think will happen either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t