Posts Tagged ‘force structure’

A bipartisan coalition of 13 senators is asking the Senate Armed Services Committee to require DOD to report on the impact of proposed force structure adjustments before launching such actions. The request follows the dispute triggered by the far-reaching set of force reductions the Air Force included in its fiscal 2013 budget request affecting more than 60 installations. “We have not been provided clear and objective metrics by which the reductions and restructuring proposed at specific installations have been selected …

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week assured Alaska Sen. Mark Begich that the Pentagon would provide its rationale for its proposal to relocate a squadron of F-16s from Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. Begich had asked the Air Force for the justification it relied on since officials included the realignment in the force structure changes they announced in February …

The House Armed Services Committee voted to halt the Air Force’s far-reaching plan to pare the force structure of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve that pitted the nation’s governors and lawmakers against the Pentagon. The language to bar the Air Force in the coming fiscal year from transferring or retiring any aircraft in its fleet as of May 31, 2012, was included as an amendment to the FY 2013 defense authorization bill. The committee approved the bill Thursday morning …

Communities slated to lose aircraft and personnel from local Air National Guard bases under the Air Force’s fiscal 2013 budget request would see at least some relief in two measures advancing in the House this week. The FY 2013 defense authorization bill, scheduled to be marked up today by the Armed Services Committee, would restore 2,373 of the 5,100 Guardsmen slots the Air Force proposed eliminating …

Two key defense bills unveiled by House committees Monday take dead aim at the Air Force’s plan to eliminate aircraft and personnel assigned to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves. The draft fiscal 2013 defense spending bill includes $850 million to “pause” retirements and reassignments of Guard and Reserve aircraft until Congress and the Government Accountability Office review cost-benefit analyses of the Air Force’s proposed reductions …

An association of current and former National Guard officers said it would look to Congress to reverse proposed cuts to Air National Guard personnel and aircraft included in the Air Force’s fiscal 2013 budget request. Tuesday’s statement from the National Guard Association of the United States follows a counteroffer from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week to restore some of the personnel and equipment that would have been eliminated under the Air Force’s proposal. “The Air Force met the governors’ offer of compromise with intransigence, fuzzy metrics and dubious counterproposals. The commanders in chief of the National Guard deserved a better-faith response …

If lawmakers plan on reversing planned cuts to the Air National Guard, they need to provide the necessary funding to maintain the personnel and aircraft the Air Force proposed to eliminate, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Tuesday during a forum at the Stimson Center. “If you give us force structure back, give us the money, too, because the quickest way I know to a hollow force is to give us structure and no money …

The National Governors Association rejected last week’s compromise offer from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to restore some of the proposed cuts to the Air National Guard in the fiscal 2013 budget request, and now they are urging lawmakers to preempt all of the reductions in funding, manpower and aircraft that the Air Force is calling for. “Governors, through our Adjutants General and the Council of Governors, have worked diligently with the Air Force and the U.S. Department of Defense to rectify the surprising and disproportionate cuts facing the ANG as part of the U.S. Air Force’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request …

Lawmakers are expected to take up the Air Force’s latest plan to cut the Air National Guard in the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill in response to the Pentagon’s compromise Monday to restore some of the aircraft and personnel slated to be eliminated. The House Armed Services Committee, which starts marking up the defense authorization bill today, is considering restoring cuts to the Air Force and Air National Guard …

Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s offer to restore some of the proposed cuts to the Air National Guard represented “progress,” but stopped short of fully endorsing the Pentagon’s revised plan. On Monday, Panetta offered to restore 24 C-130s and 2,200 Guard positions at a cost of $400 million over five years after the department rejected a more far-reaching proposal from the Council of Governors …