Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, at an Air Force Association event in Washington on February 2, previewed more details of the USAF portion of the fiscal 2013 budget request that comes out February 13.
“We will retire the RQ-4 Global Hawk block 30 fleet, which is about 18 aircraft” Donley says. “There was increasing cost [in the Global Hawk] programme that passed our level of tolerance. We like the capability, but not at any cost. We had a good alternative with [continued use of the manned] U-2. We still have the Global Hawk Block 20s, which are important to communications, and we intend to buy the Block 40s with ground moving target indicator capabilities.”
Personnel loss will be 9,900 in the Air Force — 3,900 active duty, 5,100 Air National Guard and 900 reserves. The active and reserve components will be more integrated. Associate units will go up to 115 units from 100. Every state will be affected by either equipment or manpower adjustments. The Air Force is mitigating manpower reductions by re-missioning Air National Guard units to remotely piloted aircraft and ISR.
Beyond budget reductions that stem from last August’s deficit-cutting and debt-ceiling law, the Budget Control Act of 2011, the Air Force secretary noted changes to operational tempo that are helping to drive these changes. “Dec. 17 was the first day in over 20 years that the U.S. did not fly a sortie over Iraq,” Donely noted. On the other hand, the Libyan campaign forced the Air Force to respond to a military emergency “in a matter of hours,” which means a demand for flexibility from that smaller force.
The USAF Strategy White Paper is available here.
Source: Aviation Week