Retired Gen. Larry Welch, former Air Force Chief of Staff, was expected to brief Air Force Secretary Michael Donley Wednesday on the study that Welch has done regarding options for future space launch, including a potential way forward for the evolved expendable launch vehicle program. “He’ll bring in some ideas on how we can further stabilize our planning and acquisition of space launch vehicles,” Donley said during a speech on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Saying he was reluctant to steal Welch’s thunder by revealing “pre-brief” details, Donley would only hint that “recommendations for how to do that might involve bigger builds” of rockets.
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.