An ambitious Air Force plan to acquire hundreds more advanced fighter jets for homeland defense over the next decade would require a blank check from Congress and expanding the tactical aircraft counted in their inventory, an official confirmed Thursday.
The report submitted to Congress last week laid out plans for the service to have nearly 1,400 manned tactical aircraft by 2030, roughly 300 more than 1,160 jets in the total combat aircraft inventory today, an Air Force official told reporters. Overall, the service wants 1,558 to achieve its missions with high confidence and low risk. But that goal can only be reached if Congress funds the purchases.
“What we’re setting is really the bar for what is the possibility out there,” the official said. “Achieving those numbers assumes that we would have the fiscal resources to do that.”
Defense One obtained a copy of the 24-page report, which laid out the service’s lofty goals and stated the service does not have “total obligation authority” to place the necessary orders. Additionally, it states, “Industry production limitations will also limit the USAF’s ability to meet global force requirement.” Congress mandated the new strategy in the last National Defense Authorization Act. And while it did explain ongoing plans for its fighter jet structure and modernization efforts for aging aircraft, the plan’s success would require near-perfect conditions.
“This is where we want to be in the future,” the official said. “Whether we’re going to be able to get there, based on the realities of either industry or top line, will be a function of the process that we go through.”
The Air Force also wants to change how Congress defines the number of fighter jets it’s required to keep in its inventory. The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act set a bottom limit of 1,145 fighter jets in the service’s primary mission aircraft inventory—or the number of aircraft needed to meet a unit’s mission requirement. In 2025, the service was allowed to temporarily reduce the number of aircraft required by 44, to allow for the planned retirement of some jets, but then was required to return to the original number.
In the service’s 2026 legislative proposal, the Air Force wants to change the “primary mission inventory” requirement to “combat-coded total aircraft inventory”: a broader term that would include primary mission, reserve, and back-up fighters.
“In the context of assessing combat capacity, reporting ‘Combat Coded Total Aircraft Inventory’ (CCTAI)” provides a complete assessment of aircraft used to meet combat demands,” the report said.
Defense experts who spoke to Defense One about the unclassified report said it excluded key budget details and didn’t provide enough of a build-up of tactical jets for future national security requirements.
“There’s probably a lot of different opinions on whether it scratches the itch,” the Air Force official said. “For some, I think it absolutely will. I think there’s probably some out there that it absolutely won’t.”
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