U.S. Air Force argues for more money

WASHINGTON, March 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Air Force, in a dogfight for budget dollars, says it needs funds to modernize or the United States risks losing its air dominance.

The Air Force seeks $18 billion in "unfunded requirements," to be used for new airplanes such as the F-22 Raptor, each costing $143 million, The Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday. These are replacing the F-15 Eagles, one of which fell apart last fall.

The Air Force says its years of maintaining older airplanes without buying new ones is catching up to it.

"We've got an extraordinarily old fleet, the oldest we've had in the Air Force," Col. Richard Forester, a deputy chief at Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va., said to the newspaper. "We used to enjoy a pretty decided advantage over anybody else on the planet but not so much anymore."

If major funding is channeled to the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, forcing the Air Force and U.S. Navy to repair instead of replace systems, "we will find ourselves in a fight we can't win, and the Army and Marine Corps will lack the throw-weight to win without the Navy and Air Force at their side," one senior officer told the Monitor.