Arlington, VA | April 9, 2025 — The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies is pleased to announce a new entry in its Research Studies series, Rebuilding American Airpower: Balancing the Air Force’s Combat Forces for Peer Conflict by Col Mark A. Gunzinger, USAF (Ret.), Director of Future Concepts and Capability Assessments; and Heather Penney, Director of Studies and Research at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
The United States Air Force requires a balanced mix of capabilities and the capacity to simultaneously defend the U.S. homeland, deter nuclear attacks, and defeat aggression by a peer adversary as required by the national defense strategy. However, serious investments are needed to overcome shortfalls created by over 30 years of chronic underfunding, force cuts, and deferred modernization. The Department of Defense/War (DoD/W) and Congress now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild an Air Force that has a balanced mix of fifth-generation and beyond combat aircraft, autonomy-enabled uninhabited systems, guided munitions, and other advanced technologies needed to fight and win in the most stressing threat environments.
Rebuilding an Air Force that wins will require Congress and the Department of Defense/War to make strategic choices on the service’s future force design. These choices should be informed by insights into the potential for new capabilities and innovative operating concepts that can maximize the effects the Air Force can create during high-intensity conflicts. Toward this end, the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies led a wargame to compare the effectiveness, survivability, and resiliency of two alternative force mixes for a 2035 Air Force. This report’s recommendations are based on discussions and conclusions developed during the wargame by experts who have the greatest stake in the service’s force design—the air campaign planners, strategists, and operators who may be called upon to defend our nation and fight and win against China.
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.
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