Skip to content

Commentary: USAF Stuck in 19th Century

Bill Sweetman writes in the Daily Beast : “It’s unlikely that the U.S. Air Force will be abolished in anyone’s lifetime, whatever University of Kentucky professor Robert Farley, author of Grounded—The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force, may think.”  

“A few commentators have already raised the obvious issues: that the USAF already provides essential enablers to the Army and Navy, rather than being obsessed with bombers and independent airpower; that neither the Army nor the Navy would be well suited to take over things like space launch and operations, or airlift; and that not much money would actually be saved without eliminating entire missions.”  

“But Farley’s book makes a bigger argument: that the case for an independent air force is based on the false assertion that airpower can win wars on its own. In doing so, the book exemplifies a toxic, and irrational skepticism toward airpower, and only airpower, which pervades some military thinking.”

Recent Stories

Trump slams Putin, touts self-made tariff deals and muses on gold leaf

Nebraska independent Dan Osborn makes another bid for Senate

Capitol Ink | Gilding the Congress

Reconciliation law offers radiation compensation to more people

Serious legislating hits a low point

‘The best investigative reporter I ever had a chance to work with’