During the early 2000s, the USAF fumbled several high profile aircraft procurement projects, such as the missteps on the KC-X program. Winslow Wheeler has written that this pattern represents "failures of intellect and – much more importantly – ethics." As a result, the USAF fleet is setting new records for average aircraft age and needs to replace its fleets of fighters, bombers, airborne tankers, and airborne warning aircraft, in an age of restrictive defense budgets. Finally in the midst of scandal and failure in maintaining its nuclear arsenal, the civilian and military leaders of the air force were replaced in 2008.

When did the USAF have several missteps of aircraft procurement projects?