Lawmakers Detail Competing Proposals for E-7 and F-35 in NDAA

The President Budget request submitted late last month includes funding for only 24 F-35A fighters, about half what the Air Force has acquired in each of the last several years. It also zeroes out funding for the E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft. A group of retired Air Force generals, including six former Air Force chiefs of staff, signed a letter decrying those cuts and urging Congress to fund 75 new F-35As and to restore E-7 funding.
The Senate committee, on a bipartisan vote, advanced its version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization bill, which authorizes—but does not fund—10 more F-35A fighter jets than the 24 the Pentagon requested for the Air Force. The committee’s plan bars the Air Force from retiring its remaining fleet of more than 100 A-10 close air support aircraft, however, jets the Air Force contends are not survivable in future peer conflict.

It's a wonder anything ever gets built or bought.

Is the F35 the fighter of the future, or is it the equivalent of the Brewster Buffalo of the past? We shall see.

Good evening @Maj Robert Thornton. Excellent post. Thank you for sharing this Sir. :->