U.S. military headed the way of Detroit?

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: DEFENSEINSIDER

The Pentagon is not designing any futuristic fighter jets.

Teens' videogame consoles have more computing power than the military's most advanced precision-guided munitions. Much of the software used on military computers looks like a 1970s Atari disk operating system.

This technology malaise is worsening, not getting better, experts said.

Nowhere is the concern about technological decline more pronounced than in air warfare and tactical aviation. The U.S. Air Force, the world's most technologically advanced for the past half-century, is at risk of becoming a transportation service that also flies drones, warned retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Dunn, president of the Air Force Association.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates famously accused Air Force leaders of suffering from "next-war-itis," or the obsession with preparing for large-scale conventional wars against peer competitors that are not likely to happen. Dunn pushed back on that idea. "I would accuse the Defense Department of having "this war-itis," he said. "There is little focus on the future."

The Air Force's 2011 budget funds 149 aircraft. But a closer look at the breakdown of the spending plan reveals that the Air Force is not necessarily using those funds to modernize the fleet, Dunn said. Out of the 149 aircraft, 52 are drones, nine of which are throwaways that are used for target practice. Of the remaining 88 aircraft, 12 are trainers for...