I don’t know what “last 5” you’re counting, but the B1 and sooner rather than later the B2 fleet are being divested because we’ve exhausted one, and never built enough of the other.
The B52 re-engine has been discussed since the 80s and never happened because “oh don’t worry we are getting ____s” only to not buy enough (B1/2). Now we literally have to re-engine them to limp our global strike fleet at useful numbers while B-21 comes on line.
Same is true with Raptors. We flew half the attrition off that fleet in the early 2010s. The global economic interdependency that came out of the “end” of the Cold War is in decline. The world is very quickly going to become more hostile and the potential for boil over that we can’t just ignore is increasing along with massive demographic collapse that will result in increasing populations of non producers as then age with nobody to replace them. We need to be restoring our military equipment from the 20 year attrition we just put it through in preparation for that. I fully expect to have to deploy to a new conflict zone before I retire (probably Africa) because of those issues.
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Korea, 'Nam losses, Iraq 1 was a solid W, Iraq 2 and Afg, no so much.
It's hard to have sympathy when you flew the hell out of your fleet to lob rocks off an overpass at cave dwellers, goat herders and poppy farmers and still couldn't get the W on the tactics side in what was essential a zero threat environment for air. On the strat side you flew the wings off your planes to move around pallets of bubble wrap and muscle milk so the sortie completion slides could be green and someone could make O-8... So that O-8 could retire and go work at Boeing or Raytheon or whatever and continue to be part of the problem on the acquisitions and contracting side.
Not to mention Russia is clearly not what they appeared to be... is China? Oh and let's not forget, everyone looses when however many thousands of nukes are pointed at each other, so why venture there in the first place? Especially given that my lesson learned from Ukraine is that Americans do not care what happens half a world away despite any parroting or pretending to care about neoliberal world order. Taiwan would get sympathy for about a week before Rand Paul or whatever Fox News talking head says wait, why are we spending money on this, just like they are now for Ukraine. I mean, I know why we should spend money on Ukraine, but does whoever the next president is know?
Africa is a lost cause, we had no strategy, too busy letting orange man ruin our federal government including the state department and DoD from the inside out and now China owns every port and airport on the continent, so I'm not too worried about spending any more time in the Sahel than I already have.
Ok and here's the kicker that a lot of military people miss.
People get frustrated with the huge purchases not because of the huge purchases themselves, but because they walk out of their house and see crumbling bridges, homeless people, derailed trains, the price of insulin, horrible public schools, salraies of teachers and public servants being a joke and 100 other problems that the price tag of one B-21 could fix and they get pissed.
The problem is that you get the B-21, but not the other stuff... when there is clearly money for the other stuff too.
