Gen. Herbert Carlisle, Air Combat Command chief at the U.S. Air Force, has said sequestration could limit the military service’s capacity to respond to global crises, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.
Carlisle told the publication’s James Kitfield a tight budget will force the service to shrink its force further by the turn of the decade and “cease to be a global air force.â€
“We will still be the best air force in the world, but we will have to shrink our capacity to the point that we will only be able to cover one region at a time,†he told Breaking Defense.
Carlisle noted that the Air Force works to monitor multiple potential threats worldwide such as Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the crises in Libya and Africa in addition to the fight against the Islamic State organization, according to the report.
“My biggest concern is that, as we try and maintain readiness and this high operations tempo, we have cut modernization to the breaking point,†he said.
“If we don’t find a way to fix that our potential adversaries will outstrip us in terms of capability, and we can’t let that happen,†Carlisle added.
