An observation I had from my limited time working with the AF is that they are a very bomber dominated service in the same way that we are a very surface dominated service. On top of that, the AF rescue community was seemingly dominated by the C-130 mafia. As a Navy helicopter pilot observing the AF from the outside at a few planning conferences many years back, it became clear to me that the AF doesn’t like the CSAR mission any more than the Navy. It not that they hate it, it’s just a side quest that has to be managed, maintained, and funded by senior leadership that doesn’t know or understand the mission or the aircraft. The A-10 suffers the same way in my opinion. It’s highly skilled community of operators that seems to enjoy keeping to itself and letting their success speak for them. On top of that, I believe a lot of their presence is Guard or Reserve, but that might not be correct. While admirable, it doesn’t keep them top of mind in the acquisition process. On top of that, the AF seems far more comfortable upgrading legacy equipment than developing anything from the ground up. Aside from the F-22 or F-35, the bulk of the modern AF are still platforms developed in the 1950’s that they plan to keep flying for at least another generation. On Fri, Jun 19, 2026 at 8:45 PM <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com> wrote:
https://www.twz.com/air/congress-questions-air-forces-combat-rescue-readines...
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