MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to West, US readiness is imbalanced, while the Air Force itself is "small, old and heavily tasked."
"[If] a B-17 [bomber] that flew in World War II had flown in Desert Storm, the aircraft bombers we are using today are older than those B-17s would have been. It’s an aged fleet," Fox News quoted West as telling the US Congress' Subcommittee on Readiness on Wednesday.
West also noted that less than a half of the US Air Force fleet was ready to fully perform combat tasks.
The Air Force budget cuts that were introduced three years ago have reportedly caused a shortage of staff and aircraft parts.
According to the World Bank data, the US expenses on defense decreased from 4.2 percent of the country's GDP in 2012 to 3.3 percent in 2015.
