AF Leaders Detail Cuts to End Strength

The Air National Guard will bear the brunt of the Air Force's end strength reductions, accounting for more than half of the 9,900 airmen the service plans to cut, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley announced Thursday.

The service will lose 5,100 Air Guardsmen, 900 Reservists, and 3,900 active duty Airmen from the Air Force's total end strength of 510,900. The Air Guard is a third the size of the active duty force, but will account for half of the end strength cuts.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said the service chose to reduce its end strength to account for a shrinking force structure, not specifically to save money. Those force structure changes include the retirement of six tactical air squadrons and one training squadron. Four of the seven squadrons the service chose to retire are Guard units.

"The track record for the Air Force is that most of the reductions in the past several years actually going back a decade have been in the active force. Proportionally, the size of the active force has come down over time," Donley said at a breakfast sponsored by the Air Force Association just outside Washington.

Air Guard leaders have questioned why it must absorb the largest percentage of cuts. Air Guard Director Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt on Tuesday wondered about Schwartz's definition of "balance" when it comes to total force reductions.

"Chief said we are going to do this in a balanced fashion. It will be interesting to see on the 13th of this month the practical implications of what ‘balanced' means," Wyatt said at the Reserve Officers Association's National Security Symposium.

The Air Force plans to retire over 280 aircraft, including 123 fighters, 133 mobility aircraft and 30 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft over the next five years.

Air Force leaders plan to retire 102 A-10 ground-attack jets, or 29 percent of the service's total fleet of 348 aircraft. Air Guard squadrons will lose 54 of the 102 A-10 Warthogs, or half the Guard's fleet, which service officials plan to mothball.

Of the seven squadrons the Air Force plans to retire, three will be A-10 Guard squadrons the Air Force recently transitioned from F-16 squadrons, according to Guard sources. The 107th Fighter Squadron at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich., 163rd Fighter Squadron at Fort Wayne Air National Guard Station, Ind., and the 184th Fighter Squadron at Ebbing Air National Guard Base, Ark., will each lose their A-10 mission, the sources said.

The Air Force will also retire an F-16 Guard unit. A Guard source said the Iowa National Guard's 124th Fighter Squadron would be decommissioned.

Donley and Schwartz promised the seven squadrons would not all go away permanently, but receive other missions. The Air Force's two top leaders said airmen from those units could receive expanding mission sets such as flying MQ-9 Reapers.

"What we are doing is re-missioning the units," Schwartz told reporters at the Pentagon Jan. 27. "In other words, for example, a unit that was operating manned aircraft might transition to a remotely piloted aircraft mission. And so, their fundamental skills will still be employed but in a different way."

Air Force leaders expect to reach the targeted active duty drawdown associated with this budget through attrition.

"We've taken aggressive measures over the last two years to get our over strength numbers down," Donley said.

However, Guard leaders will use "force management tools" the active duty has used recently to remove 5,100 Guardsmen from the service, Donley said. He didn't specific which tools will be offered to Guard leaders, but active component leaders have used "force shaping" boards, early retirement and financial incentives to separate airmen.

"We have legislative proposals that we will give to the Hill that will give us the force management tools for the Guard like we've had for the active duty forces to help them through this 5,100 drawdown," Donley said.

Despite the cuts to the Guard, Donley said he expects the relationship between the active duty, Guard, and Reserves to tighten. The Air Force will expand the number of active duty and Guard units that establish associations and share resources, the service secretary said.

To account for the Air Force's shrinking fleet, the service's active duty squadrons will send more pilots to Guard units to earn flight time. Quietly, Guard officials questioned why the service wants to cut Guard infrastructure if it also wants to expand the service's number of Guard and active duty associations.

The Air Force's approach to cutting its reserve component differs from the rest of the military's services. Army and Navy leaders have left their Guard and Reserve units mostly untouched. Donley said the Air Force is in a "different place."

Air Force leaders chose to cut what it did with the total force in mind, Donley said. He emphasized that service leadership remains committed to the Air Force's Guard and Reserve.

"As we get smaller, it's more important that we find that right balance between the active duty and the Guard," Donley said.