USAF Chief Backs New Base Defense Career Field as F-35 Block 4 Delays Stretch 2 Years
Updated
Updated · Breaking Defense · Jul 20
USAF Chief Backs New Base Defense Career Field as F-35 Block 4 Delays Stretch 2 Years
1 articles · Updated · Breaking Defense · Jul 20
Summary
Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said the Air Force will launch a new point-defense career field to protect air bases from drones, cruise missiles and ballistic threats highlighted by recent fighting with Iran.
Wilsbach argued against spending heavily on hardened shelters, saying anything short of roughly 100 feet underground can still be destroyed; he favored cheaper active defenses, nets, directed energy, guns and electronic warfare.
On Boeing’s T-7, he said the jet still flies under speed and angle-of-attack limits but is far easier than the T-38 and could eventually replace both the T-38 and T-6 as a single trainer.
On the F-35, Wilsbach said two years of TR-3 and Block 4 delays have had limited operational impact because the Air Force can shift aircraft among units, though he pressed Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to deliver stable upgrades and APG-85 radars faster.
The comments show the Air Force balancing immediate wartime base-survivability lessons with longer-running modernization problems across its fighter and training fleets.