Arlington, VA | September 5, 2025 — The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies is pleased to announce a new entry in its Research Studies series, Winning the Next War: Overcoming the U.S. Air Force’s Capacity, Capability, and Readiness Crisis by Col John “JV” Venable, USAF (Ret.), Senior Resident Fellow at the Mitchell Institute, with Joshua Baker, Research Analyst.

The Air Force’s commitment to generating a highly lethal force that is technologically superior, numerically sufficient, and flown by the most well-trained airmen in the world is the bedrock of deterring aggression in times of peace and prevailing in war. Projecting joint military power demands a robust level of airpower that only the Air Force can provide. Yet today’s United States Air Force is the oldest, smallest, and least ready in its history. Facing the severely challenging global threat environment for the next decade and beyond, these shortfalls set the conditions for an existential national security crisis.

It is essential that the Trump administration and Congress reverse the service’s decline in capacity, capability, and readiness. The solution demands increasing the Air Force budget, while also shifting internal service funds from Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) into both procurement and operations and maintenance (O&M) accounts specifically aimed at re-establishing readiness to prevail in peer conflict. If the declines in the U.S. Air Force are excused or ignored, the human and material losses we will suffer in the next major conflict risk being significant. That is a price the nation cannot afford.

The Mitchell Institute’s Research Studies serve as an authoritative avenue for innovative, in-depth, insightful, and effective ideas and solutions for strengthening America’s aerospace power.

For media inquiries, email our publications team at publications.mitchellaerospacepower@afa.org

Copies of Policy Papers can be downloaded at https://mitchellaerospacepower.org/category/publications/