{"id":36526,"date":"2018-12-27T16:34:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T16:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/12\/27\/four-big-questions-for-the-air-force-in-2019\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:58:21","slug":"four-big-questions-for-the-air-force-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/12\/27\/four-big-questions-for-the-air-force-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Four big questions for the Air Force in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 As the Air Force leaves 2018 behind and flies into into a new year, the service may face some big changes to its organization and aircraft inventory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expect to see a lot of these questions answered with the release of the fiscal year 2020 budget, which officials have said will be released in early February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis nor its acting head Patrick Shanahan has confirmed a topline budget for the department \u2014 the latest reports peg it at $750 billion, up from the $733 billion the Pentagon originally planned for and the $700 billion that President Donald Trump mandated afterward. However, much of this could be dependent on whether the Air Force sees a funding bump this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s going on with that F-15X buy? <\/b>Rumors have swirled for more than a year about whether the Air Force could buy additional F-15s, but it appears that the service will begin purchasing more of Boeing\u2019s air superiority jet. On Dec. 21, Bloomberg reported that the Air Force will request 12 F-15Xs<\/a> for about $1.2 billion as part of the FY20 budget request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The F-15X will be a new variant of the F-15 that includes a new electronic warfare suite, radar, cockpit and the ability to carry more missiles. Bloomberg reports that the decision to buy the new aircraft stems from top Pentagon leaders who want new F-15s to replace the aging models used by the Air National Guard \u2014 and pointedly not the Air Force, which has been resistant to buying new, fourth-generation planes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, when asked whether the service was considering the purchase of the F-15X, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said the service needed to use its purchasing power to buy more fifth-generation fighter jets like the F-35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are currently 80 percent fourth-gen aircraft and 20 percent fifth-generation aircraft,\u201d she said. “In any of the fights that we have been asked to plan for, more fifth-gen aircraft make a huge difference, and we think that getting to 50-50 means not buying new fourth-gen aircraft, it means continuing to increase the fifth generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t