By David Axe

A $15-billion helicopter contest that got protested and overturned in 2006. A $35-billion tanker program that suffered the same fate this year. A 75-percent cut in the original order for F-22s. Mounting delays to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. 'Our contracting personnel, our warfighters and our engineers [are] not always adequately prepared' for tough, legally challenged acquisitions, new Air Force chief Michael Donley explained. That has meant fewer and fewer planes bought every year for more and more money.

As a result, the Air Force's 6,000 airplanes are more than 20 years old, on average -- the oldest ever. To start driving down the average age, the service would have to buy 200 new planes per year, nearly double the recent rate, according to Air Force Magazine.

But finding the modernization and recapitalization money needed for its fleet of tactical airlifters, bombers, search and rescue helicopters, tankers, and fighters is 'going to be a neat trick,' said Donley.

The air service long has said it needs an extra $20 billion a year to buy new planes. But if anything, defense budgets are going to shrink as the economy teeters, according to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.).