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Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Lohmeier warned that chronic underinvestment and an aging aircraft inventory are undermining the service’s readiness, urging sweeping acquisition changes to add capacity and speed, during opening-day remarks at Life Cycle Industry Days 2026 in Dayton, Ohio, on July 27.
Speaking to senior Airmen, veteran civilians and industry leaders, Lohmeier pointed to recent operations — including Midnight Hammer, Absolute Resolve and Epic Fury — as evidence of continued battlefield success, while stressing that the service must accelerate modernization to stay ahead of rapidly expanding adversaries, especially China. He invoked a line made famous by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: “You go to war with the army you have.”
Lohmeier outlined the scale of the challenge: nearly half of the Air Force’s fleet is more than 40 years old, and over 60% is past 30 years. Legacy workhorses like the KC-135 and B-52 remain lethal, he said, but sourcing parts to keep them flying is increasingly difficult. New platforms — the F-15EX, F-35, B-21 and the first sixth-generation F-47 — are entering service, yet production and sustainment are not keeping pace with retirements. “If we can’t recapitalize our platforms at the rate that we’re forced to retire them, the math is simple: We will continue to get smaller,” Lohmeier said.
To reverse that trend, he detailed the Air Force’s Acquisition Transformation Strategy, a bid to move the defense industrial base to a faster, higher-volume production posture, drawing a parallel to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Arsenal of Democracy.” “We have incredible systems, platforms and munitions … but we need more of just about everything,” Lohmeier explained. “We have to keep the quality, increase the quantity, decrease the cost and accelerate delivery.”
A major structural change in the plan centers on accountability: the creation of Direct Reporting Portfolio Managers and Portfolio Acquisition Executives, with 85% of contract authority moving to that level to compress decision timelines and streamline oversight.
Culturally, Lohmeier pressed for a new tolerance for prudent risk and an emphasis on affordable mass — fielding lower-cost, good-enough munitions matched to targets to preserve high-end stockpiles for priority missions. As he put it, “85% solution in the hands of our armed forces today is infinitely better than an unachievable 100% solution endlessly undergoing testing.” He closed by signaling a sustained shift away from legacy processes, saying the service is making the “express lane the new normal.”
LCID, now in its 10th year and hosted by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, continues July 28 in Dayton.
