The nation’s Air National Guard adjutants general are making their most unified push yet to recapitalize the U.S. Air Force’s fighter fleet, with 22 generals signing a letter to Congress this month calling for multiyear funding to buy between 72 and 100 new fighters annually.
The letter, sent April 1 to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees and their defense subcommittees, calls on Congress to legislate multiyear procurement of F-35A Lightning IIs and F-15EX Eagle IIs at a baseline of 48 F-35As and 24 F-15EXs per year, with a desired end state of 72 F-35As and 36 F-15EXs, totaling 108 aircraft annually.
“The United States Air Force is the oldest, the smallest and the least ready in its 78-year history,” the letter states. “We must build a fighting force that will win.”
The letter, which was first reported by Air & Space Forces Magazine, marks the first time the Adjutants General Association of the United States has collected signatures from all 22 adjutants general commanding states with Guard fighter units.
Even at 100 new fighters per year, full recapitalization of the total force could still take 10 to 15 years given the existing backlog of legacy aircraft.
“When all 22 adjutants general with fighter missions speak with one voice, it’s not advocacy, it’s operational feedback from the commanders generating combat airpower every day,” Maj. Gen. Mark R. Morrell, adjutant general of the South Dakota National Guard, said in an emailed statement.
“It signals to Congress that this is not a regional or parochial concern, but a clear, consistent demand signal from the field that the fighter recapitalization gap is real, growing and must be addressed.”
The Air Force requested 48 F-35As in fiscal 2024, 42 in fiscal 2025, 24 in fiscal 2026 and 38 in fiscal 2027. For the F-15EX, it sought 24, 18, 21 and 24 over the same years, respectively, according to budget documents.
The fiscal 2027 request totals 62 combined, still below the 72-aircraft threshold the Air Force has long said is needed just to prevent the fleet from shrinking. The last time the service acquired more than 72 fighters in a single year was 1998.
The readiness cost of that shortfall is already visible at the unit level, the generals said.
“Our airmen are doing a heroic job keeping these 40-year-old airframes in the air, but they are paying the price for decades of deferred modernization,” Brig. Gen. Shannon Smith, commander of the Idaho Air National Guard, told Military Times.
“In the interim, we are enduring risk by asking exceedingly more from our maintenance professionals, cannibalizing parts from already broken aircraft to keep others flying, and by our pilots losing their critical warfighting edge because they cannot get enough flight hours in mission-capable jets.”
Of the Air Guard’s 24 fighter squadrons, 13 currently lack a recapitalization plan commensurate with the 2026 National Defense Strategy, according to NGAUS.
The August 2025 Department of the Air Force Long-Term USAF Fighter Force Structure Report to Congress independently confirmed the need, identifying all 24 ANG fighter squadrons as required to meet the objective force of 1,369 combat-coded total aircraft needed for acceptable military risk.
The letter draws a sharp line on how that modernization must be structured.
“Cascading legacy aircraft does not recapitalize the force, it redistributes risk,” Maj. Gen. Timothy J. Donnellan, adjutant general of the Idaho National Guard, said in an emailed statement.
“Operationally, it will result in reduced survivability in contested environments, higher maintenance burdens and lower aircraft availability rates. For Guard units, it creates a structural mismatch — the Guard is an operationally ready force expected to meet the same combatant commander demands but with less capable and less reliable aircraft. To meet the 2026 National Defense Strategy the USAF must field a fighting force indistinguishable in lethality and survivability across all components, active, guard and reserve.”
With the fiscal 2027 budget request falling 10 fighters short of even the minimum threshold, the generals have a direct message for appropriators.
“Funding below 72 aircraft per year means the Air Force is not even sustaining current fighter capacity,” Smith said. “It’s actively shrinking.
“If the requirement is to meet the National Defense Strategy, then in our best military advice, 72 aircraft per year is the absolute minimum to hold the line. Anything less means accepting greater risk.”
The National Guard Association of the United States has listed ANG fighter recapitalization as a top legislative priority for fiscal 2027 defense deliberations.
