Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Congress has not given the Air Force the flexibility to advance new innovations that will “scare China,” his goal as secretary.

“The Air Force has been overly constrained,” Kendall told Defense News in an interview. “I think we’ve not been allowed to do things we really need to do to free up resources for things that are higher priority. We’ve had a very hard time getting the Congress to allow us to retire older aircraft.”

Kendall also said the Air Force can live within tight budget levels – if Congress lets it do what it needs to do.

“But when you’re hamstrung by the fact that you can’t divest bases you don’t need [and] you can’t divest aircraft you don’t need, you can’t take the steps that you need to modernize.”

Kendall, an Army veteran and former Pentagon acquisitions chief, said he has been freshening up on Chinese military technology.

“They’re moving faster than I might have anticipated,” Kendall said. “So, we have a lot of work to do.”

Air Force photo by Chustine Minoda