Budget Hearing - the United States Air Force and Space Force — hearing of 30 April 2026: transcript & video

Name: Budget Hearing - the United States Air Force and Space Force
Uploaded: 2026-04-30T13:30:00+00:00

00:00 - 00:26

Speaker 1

So domain awareness is a broader category than just airborne early warning. And there is ability to do domain awareness from space, in the air, and from the ground. You also have to do command and control, which you can do command and control through all of those domains. And so the budget is lined up to address all of those domains to enable us to do domain awareness and command and control.

00:27 - 00:29

Speaker 2

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You'll be back. Thank you. Mister Aguilar?

00:30 - 00:41

Speaker 3

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General, of the aircraft lost in the Iran incursion, the air force has lost the majority. How do you see this impacting future aircraft recapitalization? And.

00:41 - 00:41

Speaker 4

have

00:41 - 00:47

Speaker 3

You made projections about what could be lost in the incursion and how you'll address that moving forward?

00:49 - 01:18

Speaker 1

So we hope to be able to address this in a supplemental for the aircraft that we've lost. And the procurement, going forward, is meant to increase the number of tails we have, especially in the fighter force, but it also includes bombers and tankers as well. And so both supplemental and the budget, the twenty seventh budget is supposed to address those losses.

01:18 - 01:28

Speaker 3

Mister secretary, given the dwindling supply of the F-15 C's and the delays in the EX, how do you see the recapitalization of the F-15 squadrons?

01:29 - 02:05

Speaker 4

It's a priority. It's a great platform. Care, a lot of weapons. I was, we're in the process of working closely with Boeing, the contractor. I actually spent last Thursday all day out with him, going through the details on the program on how we're going to ramp up production, past where they are today.

I think the contractor's putting a good plan together with our team. They're supposed to come back with that plan in about 30 days. And I'm confident that we will ramp production, exactly what month next year that's going to happen. I think it's, we're still working through that, but we will be able to ramp production on the F-15's critical platform.

02:05 - 02:07

Speaker 3

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You bet.

02:09 - 02:14

Speaker 2

Thanks, gentlemen. I think, mister Fleishman, if you ask a quick question, then we're going to adjourn.

02:14 - 02:28

Speaker 5

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll be brief. Gentlemen, thank you. Can you help us understand the current near-term outlook of our tanker fleet and the capacity for us to sustain a war in the Indo-Pacific? What should we do to mitigate this growing gap in capacity?

Thank you.

02:28 - 03:06

Speaker 1

Yes, Congressman. I'll do this very quickly. Our tanker fleet has been performing marvelously, through epic fury. As you know, we have a floor for 466 tankers. We have a number that we're supposed to meet this year in April, which we will do.

And we are working our way with this budget, and perhaps future budgets, to get to 500 too. In addition, we have in this budget 105,000,000 dedicated to connecting the tanker force so that they have a similar data link network that we have in our fighters. So we're on an upslope for the tanker force.

03:08 - 03:27

Speaker 2

Thank you. And I apologize for the accelerated hearing today, but we have votes. I think we're gonna be on the floor for at least an hour. So I'll make a decision that we'll adjourn, and we'll submit questions for the record to all three of you. And we appreciate your service.

Appreciate your attendance. The committee is adjourned.