Budget certainty and lifting sequestration are two critical issues for the Air Force, Secretary Heather Wilson said Wednesday, Nov. 15.

Wilson, the Air Force's senior leader, spoke at the Shreveport Convention Center as part of the Air Force Global Strike Command Innovation and Technology Symposium. Wilson also spent time this week at Barksdale Air Force Base in her first visit to the site.

“Probably the most important decision that’s going to be made over the next month to affect the United States Air Force is the decision that the Congress faces about the budget,” Wilson said. “We need budget certainty in order to restore the readiness of the force to be able to defend the country.”

Wilson also said that sequestration needs to be lifted as it is currently structured under the Budget Control Act. Sequestration refers to the federal budgeting practice, dating to the presidency of Barack Obama, requiring equal cuts in all government programs as long as Congress can't enact a compromise budget deal.

“No enemy in the field has done as much damage to American forces as sequestration has done in the last decade,” she said. "It's time to take this off of cruise control, and let the Congress drive the budget. That certainty will allow the United States Air Force to be able to plan and budget in a normal way, and actually keep programs."

Sequestration would mean a $15 billion cut in the Air Force that would have to be absorbed in nine months, Wilson said.

“That would mean that a third of the fighters and bombers in the United States Air Force would be sitting on the ramp for seven months,” she said. “A third of the Air Force would be grounded.”

The Air Force currently is currently short 2,000 pilots of about 24,000 total, she said.

“We’re particularly critically short of fighter pilots,” she said. “If we have to ground a third of the Air Force for seven months, those pilots and air crew are going to leave us, and it will take another 10 years to recover.”

Wilson also addressed her first visit to Barksdale, which she said was spent interacting with airmen.

“Any day out in the field is a whole lot better than a day at the Pentagon is my general approach to things,” she said. “It’s great to see airmen innovating, improving things where they work.”