Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said legislators on Capitol Hill, locked in partisan gridlock, shoulder part of the blame.The U.S. Air Force faces a shortfall of 700 fighter pilots by the end of the year and as many as 1,000 pilots within a few years, Air Force officials said Wednesday.
“It is a crisis,” said Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff. “Air superiority is not an American birthright. It’s actually something you have to fight for and maintain.” MORE