National Interest: The US Air Force is in decline.
On Tuesday, the media reported the decline of the US Air Force and the high readiness of the Russian and Chinese air forces.
In an analysis of the state of the American Air Force and competitors such as Russia and China, the international media wrote that the number and capability of American fighters is now at its lowest level, and short-term training has weakened the readiness of pilots. All in all, today’s US Air Force is not prepared for an operation like “Desert Storm”.
The National Interest magazine wrote in an article on Tuesday that the United States Air Force is in a bad state as it celebrates its 76th anniversary and cannot recruit enough of its needed forces. Now, the number and capability of American fighters is at its lowest level, and short-term training has weakened the readiness of pilots. All in all, today’s US Air Force is not prepared for an operation like “Desert Storm”.
Now the US Air Force recruitment situation is not interesting and if the recruitment conditions such as drug use, physical tests, age, and the like had not been changed, the number of recruits would have been much lower.
The National Interest further wrote, that at the height of the Cold War, the Air Force had 4,468 fighters and 331 bombers in its total force, and 8 out of 10 were capable of carrying out missions.
Today, the US Air Force has only 1,932 fighters and 140 bombers, and only 6 out of 10 are suitable for combat missions. Unfortunately, the level of training of pilots has decreased dramatically. At the height of the Cold War, fighter pilots flew an average of more than 160 sorties or 200 hours per year. In 2022, Air Force fighter pilots averaged just 74 sorties, or 129 hours, per year.