Press Releases

Today, Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, made the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the Subcommittee's hearing on "Air Dominance and the Critical Role of Fifth Generation Fighters." For the testimony for today's hearing and to watch live click here.

"The subcommittee meets today to receive testimony on the need for Air Dominance and the critical role of fifth generation strike fighters.

I want to welcome our distinguished witness for today:

• General Herbert J. “Hawk” Carlisle, Commander of Air Combat Command, United States Air Force

General Carlisle we thank you for your service and look forward to hearing your important testimony today.

This hearing is the second of two important oversight hearings the subcommittee has held this year on the requirements for Air Dominance and the critical importance of fifth generation fighters in addressing current and emerging threats.

At our previous hearing held at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on June 18th, the witness, Major General Jerry Harris, the Vice Commander of Air Combat Command, showed us a striking picture of one half of an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and one half of a Chinese J-31 fighter joined together.

The similarities were shocking. It looked like one aircraft, and left no doubt in anyone’s mind that our adversaries are working very hard to challenge America’s continued Air Dominance with fifth generation fighter programs of their own.

The last time the U.S. Air Force lost an aircraft in aerial combat was in 1972 when DESOTO 03, an F-4E supporting Operation Linebacker II, was shot down by a North Vietnamese MiG-21. The advanced aircraft now under development by Russia and China signal their objective to end our 44-year advantage.

At the previous hearing, General Harris also noted that new surface-to-air missile systems now incorporate technologies allowing engagement at further ranges and in greater numbers. The sensitivity and accuracy of these new systems has also increased concerns regarding the unrivaled ability of our aircraft to access targets from anywhere and at any time.

Challenges to America’s Air Dominance do not all originate from foreign shores. Some challenges are internal to the Air Force and the Department of Defense, and one of the biggest challenges our Nation needs to overcome is the small size of today’s Air Force.

For example, in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm, our Air Force had 134 fighter squadrons. Today we’re down to only 55 fighter squadrons. While the Department of Defense is no longer required to be able to defeat regional adversaries in large-scale campaigns on two fronts, we are losing our ability to do so on just one.

We only produced 187 fifth generation F-22 aircraft, but that number was 194 aircraft short of the requirement for 381 F-22s. Unfortunately, the decision to stop F-22 production was a strategy driven by budgeting goals rather than one driven by the need to obtain a required capability.

We don’t want to make the same mistake with F-35 production that we made with our failure to produce enough F-22s. That’s why the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 added five F-35As to meet last year’s Air Force F-35A budget plan for 48 aircraft in fiscal year 2017, an unfunded requirement identified by the Air Force Chief of Staff. The House bill also added additional F-35Bs and Cs for the Navy and Marine Corps, also unfunded requirements identified by the Navy and Marine Corps.

April 15th, 1953, is a significant date for the U.S. Air Force. It is the last time U.S. ground forces were killed as a result of enemy air attack, when a North Korean PO-2 biplane strafed an Army tent on Chodo Island off the Korean peninsula. In the last 63 years, American Air Dominance has relentlessly safeguarded the lives of our Armed Forces, provided freedom of maneuver and freedom from attack.

I am confident we will do so now and into the future, but we must remain committed to providing the resources necessary to provide the capability, capacity and readiness necessary to accomplish the critical mission of maintaining Air Dominance."