Posts Tagged ‘force structure’

Legislation introduced last week by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) would require the Air Force to wait for multiple milestones to be reached before it could shift the 18th Aggressor Squadron’s 21 F-16s from Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage. The realignment was one of the moves the Air Force included last year in its fiscal 2013 budget request that proposed trimming the service’s force structure, primarily by eliminating aircraft and personnel from the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve …

Officials in Tennessee and Kentucky say they are concerned about the possible loss of up to 8,000 soldiers and civilians at Fort Campbell but, at the same time, believe the post is well positioned to avoid the most severe impacts of the Army’s planned drawdown. “It wasn’t a total surprise to me. I just hope that out of the two proposed scenarios we end up gaining folks as opposed to losing folks,” Jim Durrett of the Clarksville Chamber’s Military Affairs Committee told the Leaf-Chronicle …

Nine installations will lose or gain assigned aircraft over the next three years under force structure actions directed in the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, the Air Force Reserve Command said Friday. Some of the more significant changes call for the following moves: Barksdale Air Force Base, La. — inactivate the 917th Fighter Group and retire 24 A-10C Thunderbolt IIs and transfer three A-10Cs to Whiteman AFB, Mo. …

A dozen Army installations would gain between 1,000 and 3,000 personnel under one of the two alternatives officials considered in assessing the impacts of reducing the service’s end strength by 72,000 soldiers by 2020. Under the first alternative examined in the Programmatic Environmental Assessment for Army 2020 Force Structure Realignment, no installation would experience a net gain of personnel …

The Army’s plan to reduce its end strength and realign its forces over the coming years will not substantially affect the environment but will result in significant impacts to a variety of economic measures in communities neighboring 21 installations, according to an assessment of potential changes to the service’s force structure scheduled to occur by 2020. Economic impacts could include reduced employment, income, regional population and sales, according to a Federal Register notice published Friday. The analysis evaluated the Army’s plan to trim its active duty end strength from 562,000 at the end of fiscal 2012 to 490,000 by FY 2020. It examined the potential impacts that could occur at posts expected to experience a gain or loss exceeding 1,000 military personnel …

Top Air Force officials acknowledged Friday that the most effective way to sustain a first class force in the face of an uncertain budget environment and other strategic challenges is to trim its size. “To avoid the perils of a hollow Air Force,” Secretary Michael Donley said, “we believe the best path forward is to become smaller in order to protect a high-quality and ready force that will improve in capability over time …

National Guard leaders should be appointed to an independent commission created by the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill to review how personnel and aircraft are allocated among the Air Force’s active and reserve components, according to a letter the National Governors Association sent this week to President Obama. National Guard representatives are needed on the panel to “to further discuss and resolve long-term strategic issues that came up during [Council of Governors] discussions with DOD,” wrote NGA Chairman Gov. Jack Markell and Vice Chairwoman Gov. Mary Fallin …

Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe on Friday said helping the military manage its installations and force structure more efficiently would be one of his top priorities as the new ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, after he was unanimously elected to the position by the panel’s Republicans. He also said he would try to prevent “arbitrary defense budget cuts and force structure reductions that are not grounded in sound strategy addressing the full range of current threats …

The Defense Department will need to provide Congress 90 days’ notice before reducing the number of military personnel assigned to an installation by more than 1,000, under the final version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill. The current statute, 10 U.S.C. Section 993, requires only a 21-day notice period before the department carries out a realignment of that magnitude …

Pennsylvania lawmakers last week urged the Pentagon not to close Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, home of the 911th Airlift Wing and about 1,900 reservists. On Friday, Gov. Tom Corbett and other elected officials highlighted the installation’s role in national security, its low cost and the economic boost it provides Western Pennsylvania. Last February, the Air Force had proposed retiring the air wing’s seven C-130H aircraft and shuttering the air reserve station as part of its fiscal 2013 budget request …