
The U.S. Air Force's fiscal 2022 budget requested the buy of 91 manned aircraft, yet a new Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report suggests that the service will need to ramp up its buy of inexpensive drones and realize significant cost savings in existing and future manned systems, such as the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of fighters, to avoid a drop in the inventory of platforms needed for future conflicts. "Fundamentally, to sustain its current inventory…