WEBVTT

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Hello and welcome to around the Air

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Force . The United States has the most

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powerful and most capable Air Force in

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the world . This doesn't mean we're

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invincible . We face many hurdles to

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maintain their dominance and our aging

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fleet of aircraft is one of great

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significance to Air Force leadership .

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Staff Sergeant Kevin Dennison brings us

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this report . Modernizing and aging .

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Air and space fleet is just one of the

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agendas facing the 19th Air Force Chief

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of Staff General Norton Schwartz and

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the Air Force some platforms are aging

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to the point where structural problems

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can cause mission failure . We have an

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aging aircraft fleet and some might

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even call it , you know , more than

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aging that it's actually old and

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as a result we're seeing some

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effects on the structures of the

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airplanes . The latest is the A 10

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where we had cracks on both the thick

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and thin wing aircraft . Similar issues

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were found in the Air Force's F 15 A B

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and C D models last year following an

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incident where an aircraft broke into

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pieces in mid Air , General Schwartz

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says there are programs underway to

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help best modernize our aging aircraft

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with a smaller but more capable force .

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Clearly the one that has the greatest

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significance for the strike . The small

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aircraft fleet is the F- 35

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and this year where we

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have sort of aligned the dollars in our

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program in a way that will accelerate

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the purchases of the machines .

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Once we get the full rate production

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General Schwartz says for the larger

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aircraft fleet , a new tanker is

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another issue that the Defense Team

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will need to look at to decide on an

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acquisition strategy for the defense

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media activity . SaN Antonio I'm Staff

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Sergeant Kevin Dennison . For more of

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today's top stories , log onto Air

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Force Link .