The Air Force's fiscal 2027 budget includes $1.5 billion for airbase air defense against missiles and drones--a $1.3 billion increase from last year's appropriated amount, according to the service. Yet, even as drones are the threat cited by many analysts as the predominant one to air bases, nearly all of the service's $1.5 billion fiscal 2027 request--$1.4 billion of it--is for missile defense, and only $100 million is for counter small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Maj. Gen. Frank Verdugo, the…
