Ten years ago this week, the US and NATO allies launched Deliberate Force, a significant airpower assault on renegade Bosnian Serbs who were running amok, killing Muslims in the Yugoslav rump state of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The three-week air campaign, shaped and conducted by USAF Gen. Michael Ryan (later to become Chief of Staff in 1997) forced the Serbs to down weapons and make peace in talks at Dayton, Ohio. Read our 1997 article here. Deliberate Force, bracketed between Desert Storm (1991) and Allied Force (1999) doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.