Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach assumes command of the Air Force amidst critical challenges in modernization and readiness. Experts highlight aging aircraft and reduced combat capacity, urging decisive action to reverse decline. Wilsbach acknowledges fiscal constraints and the need to balance legacy systems with future investments, aiming to rebuild capability and restore readiness for evolving threats.
As Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday, October 30, 2025, as the Air Force chief of staff, he faces a host of significant challenges, primarily related to the service's modernization and readiness.
Wilsbach, who recently served as commander of Air Combat Command and previously led Pacific Air Forces, now assumes the Air Force's top leadership role. He is tasked with shaping the future force to meet potential conflicts with high-tech adversaries such as China, while also addressing what some observers describe as systemic problems within the service.
Several retired officers and defense experts have pointed out precise challenges that await Wilsbach and also noted that solving some of the service's top problems could be a lengthy process. Retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, asserted that service leaders face "an incredible array of challenges."
"By every meaningful measure, whether it's age, size or readiness, the Air Force has declined to levels that frankly imperil its ability to prevail in major conflict," he said during a podcast episode released October 4, 2025, as quoted by online platform Defensescoop.
"Aircraft average over 30 years old, two-thirds of the inventory first flew more than 50 years ago, its combat forces are less than half the size they were at the end of the Cold War, and the Air Force possesses only about one-third of the fighter capacity it fielded in its last major conflict. Readiness rates are so low that only a fraction of its pilot fighters and bombers are available on any given day. So, the incoming Air Force chief of staff must act decisively. His task will not be to manage decline, but to reverse it," he added
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The new chief of staff is "not going to have the time to fix this Air Force crisis, but he can initiate a recovery. And that will require a solid, multiyear plan anchored on three imperatives: One, halting the decline of the Air Force, two, rebuilding capability and capacity, and three, restoring readiness," Deptula said.
Heather Penney, director of research at the Mitchell Institute, further stated that there is no quick fix. "Let's be clear. I mean, the crisis of the Air Force is in, has been decades in the making. It's not going to be solved in months, or even perhaps one administration. It's going to take multiple years to get the service healthy again," she said on the podcast.
Highlighting the requirements of the forces, Air Force officials told lawmakers that the service needs to expand its fighter fleet by nearly 100 aircraft by 2030 and just under 300 platforms by 2025 to meet anticipated demands, Defense Scoop reported, citing news reports about an assessment that was recently submitted to Congress. They also asserted that budgetary and industrial constraints could imperil those goals.
"We owe our Airmen a modernized and ready force. The biggest threat to those two things are fiscal constraints and fielding the US Air Force the Nation needs to confront the rapidly advancing threats; the associated risk we will incur with some of our foundational underpinnings of the force (infrastructure, IT, sustaining old weapons systems, obsolete training tools); retaining talent," Wilsbach told lawmakers in written responses to advance policy questions ahead of his confirmation hearing earlier this month, as quoted by Defense Scoop.
Wilsbach believes that one of the greatest challenges to Air Force readiness is "the tension between sustaining legacy systems and investing in future capabilities under constrained budgets.". "This imbalance risks hollowing the force and delaying transformation needed to meet pacing threats. If confirmed, I would address this by making hard divestment decisions and advocating for stable funding to support modernization and readiness simultaneously," he wrote.
He also asserted that the Air Force requires improvement in aircraft availability and training. As it moves to modernize, the service is investing in stealthy, next-generation manned platforms such as the B-21 bomber and F-47 fighter to stay ahead of high-end threats.
Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach was the Commander, Air Combat Command, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. As Commander, he was responsible for organizing, training, equipping and maintaining combat-ready air, cyberspace, and electromagnetic spectrum forces for rapid deployment and employment while ensuring strategic air defense forces are ready to meet the challenges of peacetime air sovereignty and wartime defense.
The command operates more than 1,600 aircraft, 35 wings, 12 bases, and 1,371 units at more than 263 operating locations worldwide with 155,205 total force military and civilian personnel. As the lead major command for Combat Air Forces, ACC develops strategy, doctrine, concepts, tactics and procedures for air, space and cyber-power employment. The command provides conventional and information warfare forces to all unified commands to ensure air, space, cyber and information superiority for warfighters and national decision-makers. The command also stands ready to assist national agencies with intelligence, surveillance and crisis response capabilities
Wilsbach was commissioned in 1985 as a distinguished graduate of the University of Florida's ROTC program and earned his pilot wings in 1986 as a distinguished graduate from Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas. He has commanded a fighter squadron, operations group, two wings, two Numbered Air Forces and held various staff assignments including Director of Operations, Combined Air Operations Center and Director of Operations, U.S. Central Command.
Prior to previous assignment, Gen. Wilsbach was Commander, Pacific Air Forces; Air Component Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; and Executive Director, Pacific Air Combat Operations Staff, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. PACAF is responsible for Air Force activities spread over half the globe in a command that supports more than 46,000 Airmen serving principally in Japan, South Korea, Hawaii, Alaska and Guam.
Gen. Wilsbach is a command pilot with more than 6,000 hours in multiple aircraft, primarily in the F-15C, F-16C, MC-12 and F-22A, and has flown 71 combat missions in operations Northern Watch, Southern Watch and Enduring Freedom.