On this inaugural episode of the weekly Defense & Aerospace Report’s Air Power podcast, sponsored by GE Aerospace, co-hosts JJ Gertler and Vago Muradian analyze the big stories, including the plan by the US Air Force to retire its RC-26 reconnaissance aircraft fleet, lessons the Air Force can learn from the Navy in selling air power on Capitol Hill and beyond, implications of buying fewer F-35 Lighting II fighters each year but stretching the program out by a decade, the freeze on new F135 engine deliveries by maker Pratt & Whitney after an accident late last year at Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Fort Worth, and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall interest in stealthy tanker aircraft and how such a requirement could shape the service’s air mobility fleet as leaders look to develop a new generation of transport aircraft.
