The budget request for the Department of the Air Force, which includes the Space Force, provides for a 12% increase over last year’s request. Mimi Geerges spoke with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall about his top priorities.
- Kendall said defining a resilient, effective space order of battle is a very high priority as the joint force depends on space capabilities.
- He said he is reinstituting some acquisition best practices he had put in place under Better Buying Power 2.0, such as ensuring programs are structured to deliver meaningful military capability as soon as possible.
- He said China as the pacing challenge motivates him more than anything else and is a top driver of the fiscal 2023 budget request.
- Kendall said the United States is behind in development and deployment of hypersonic weapons but should think about its military needs independently of what China is doing. He added that the U.S. has more sophisticated weapons than the Chinese in other areas.
- While the Russia-Ukraine conflict is not significantly influencing the decisions of the Department of the Air Force, according to Kendall, he noted that “the inability of the Russian military to control the air is a very interesting feature here.” He said, “we’re also seeing the potential for great power aggression by a dictatorial, authoritarian state, which I think a lot of people dismissed as an artifact of history … so I think it’s a wake-up call for everybody about the seriousness of the potential problems that we face.”
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- Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III presides over the swearing-in ceremony for Frank Kendall, who was confirmed by the Senate as the 26th Secretary of the Air Force, at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., August 4, 2021 (DoD Photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Brittany A. Chase)
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- U.S. Air Force Major Kristin Wolfe, F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team pilot and commander, flies at the Wings over South Texas air show held on Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas, April 2nd, 2022. The F-35A Demo Team is an Air Combat Command single-ship jet demonstration team that travels to air shows across the country. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Codie Trimble)
