“The U.S. Air Force is the smallest, the oldest and the least ready that it’s been since its founding in 1947,” said Dave Deptula, a retired Air Force general who now serves as dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, a think-tank affiliated with the Air Force Association. “The United States just spent Two Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment,” he wrote. Overall, defense spending increased 16 percent from 2016 through 2019, as Trump sought a big increase for military programs. American Enterprise Institute defense analyst MacKenzie Eaglen noted that for Trump, support for defense spending is good politics. An Air Force spokeswoman called that measure “just one factor that the Air Force considers as it assesses readiness,” adding that the service successfully completed all of its operational tasks last-year.

Source: Washington Post January 06, 2020 22:13 UTC