Air Force Says Budgets are Billions Short

Air Force officials are warning that unless their budget is increased dramatically, the military's high flying branch won't dominate the skies as it has for decades. After more than seven years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Air Force's aging jet fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft and gunships are at the breaking point, they say, and expensive ultramodern replacements are needed fast. An extra $20 billion each year over the next five, beginning with an Air Force budget of about $137 billion in 2009 instead of the $117 billion proposed by the Bush administration would solve that problem according to Maj. Gen. Paul Selva, the Air Force's director of strategic planning.