An ambitious Air Force plan to acquire hundreds more advanced fighter jets for homeland defense over the next decade would require a blank check from Congress and expanding the tactical aircraft counted in their inventory, an official confirmed Thursday.

The report submitted to Congress last week laid out plans for the service to have nearly 1,400 manned tactical aircraft by 2030, roughly 300 more than 1,160 jets in the total combat aircraft inventory today, an Air Force official told reporters. Overall, the service wants 1,558 to achieve its missions with high confidence and low risk. But that goal can only be reached if Congress funds the purchases.

“What we're setting is really the bar for what is the possibility out there,” the official said. “Achieving those numbers assumes that we

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