As Gen (ret.) Larry Spencer writes in a recent Op-Ed, the Air Force faces the fundamental problem of economics: scarcity (PDF link). He asks:

How does the nation exploit the Air Force’s wide array of options, and satisfy the unlimited demands for Air Force capabilities with increasingly scarce resources that are allocated to the Air Force?

He contends the solution is to convince elected leaders to provide more resources. As it turns out, all of government faces the fundamental problem and, next year, a continuing resolution is likely. So, a more tenable approach is for the Air Force to optimize under its current budget constraint. This involves making informed decisions. The service should invest in clearly understanding marginal costs and benefits across its portfolio.