Retired general warns Michigan House panel that U.S. Air Force is 'smallest, oldest and least ready'

Retired Brig. Gen. Doug O. Slocum told the Michigan House Oversight Committee on Homeland Security and Foreign Influence that the U.S. Air Force is "the smallest, the oldest and the least ready" it has been since its 1947 founding, and warned that supply-chain and procurement shortfalls are shrinking the service's day-to-day availability.

Slocum, state president of the Air and Space Forces Association and a former commander at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, told the committee the Air Force is retiring aircraft faster than it is acquiring replacements and that mission-capable rates for key platforms have dropped. "In the next 5 years, we are programmed to retire almost a thousand aircraft," he said, and "at the same time, we're only buying about 250." He added: "Less than half" of the international F-35 fleet is mission-capable on any given day, citing supply-chain and maintenance constraints.

The committee chair, Representative Mentzer, framed the panel's role in homeland security and foreign influence before the briefing, saying the committee's objective is "to enhance the awareness and to…