American Airpower in the 21st Century: Reconciling Strategic Imperatives with Economic Realities

摘要

The challenge is balancing support for the warfighter in an era of persistent conflict, where good-enough solutions are needed in months, weeks, or better yet, tomorrow, with an entirely different dynamic for conventional and strategic programs, which can take many years to achieve the desired level of technological overmatch. Reconciling these two paradigms is one of the most vexing challenges facing our military institutions.' (Secretary of Defense Robert Gates) 'Vexing' is certainly the right word to describe the state of resource allocation in the national security community. Despite still sizable defense budgets, serious economic constraints combine with a wide range of complicated threats to create extremely difficult choices for policy makers. To help them work through the decision-making process, Congress mandates Quadrennial Defense Reviews (QDRs). QDRs 'are intended to guide the services in making resource allocation decisions when developing future budgets.' The 2010 QDR rightly insists that 'America's interests and role in the world require armed forces with unmatched capabilities.'6 Recent resource decisions, however, do not provide much comfort for those who believe that the high-tech equipment 'to include especially advanced airpower' provides the most efficient, effective, and flexible means of addressing the most dangerous security challenges of the twenty-first century.