Defense Secretary Pick Emphasizes Growing Fighter Fleets

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, will push to increase the fighter fleets inside the Defense Department if confirmed, though in testimony on Jan. 14 he did not outline clear ways to pay for it.

Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer turned Fox News host, has turned into one of the more controversial nominations by Trump ahead of next week’s inauguration. During a testy Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, senators largely went back and forth on Hegseth’s social policies and relative inexperience.

But written answers to policy questions released during the hearing provided more details on Hegseth’s potential priorities if confirmed.

In carefully crafted responses to a series of questions on the state of the U.S. Air Force, Hegseth says he would want to return to policies raised, though not enacted, in Trump’s first administration. This includes the 2018 “Air Force We Need” plan outlined by then-Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, detailing the requirement to grow the force to 386 operational squadrons.

“The Air Force needs a mix of 4th- and 5th-generation aircraft balancing advanced capabilities and affordability to increase our fighter inventory,” he writes. “If confirmed, I will direct an immediate assessment of the [Air Force’s] capability and will recommend we commit additional resources, as appropriate.”

Hegseth would take charge of the Pentagon as the Air Force has paused development of its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter. In the testimony, he writes that he intends to review the findings of the Air Force’s analysis and the overall need to improve the service’s capability “to develop a balanced and affordable plan to grow the tactical fighter aircraft fleet that is prepared to win the ‘fight tonight’ against a peer adversary.”

For NGAD, Hegseth told lawmakers he feels “a little bit liberated” because he has not worked for major prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin, so he does not have a special interest in supporting any particular system.

The Air Force, along with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, are awaiting the delayed Tech Refresh 3 upgrade to the F-35 fleet, which will unlock the needed Block 4 suite of combat capabilities. The F-35 Joint Program Office has outlined a plan to bring on incremental software releases of TR3, a move needed to resume deliveries of the jet, though fully capable aircraft are not expected to be delivered until later this year. Hegseth says he plans to review this acquisition strategy, which he calls “Block 4 Lite,” to find a balance of accelerating deliveries while remaining cost-effective.

The Air Force is also in the early stages of overhauling its moving target indication (MTI) mission, bringing on the Boeing E-7A Wedgetail to replace its E-3 AWACS while also looking to do more of the mission from space. Hegseth touches on the promise of this plan, saying that space-based capabilities such as radar and electro-optical sensors can provide an alternative “if near-continuous target coverage is available on orbit.

“Recent collaborations between government and the private sector indicate that we will have sufficient proliferation to enable space-based MTI,” he writes. “If confirmed, I will direct a review of MTI alternatives, including both air- and space-based capabilities, informed by the recently completed Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC) MTI Force Design Analysis with a view toward supporting our readiness to ‘fight tonight.’”

While Hegseth’s initial nomination was met with some controversy on Capitol Hill, the Jan. 14 hearing appeared split along party lines, with Republicans fully supporting the pick while Democrats uniformly condemned the choice.