The Air Force says its needs to divest itself of an unspecified number of additional officers this year, as part of its Force Shaping Phase II initiative. This endeavor is not part of the impending reduction of 40,000 slots over the 2007-11 time period, rather it’s part of the effort over the last two years to get the service down to its currently authorized end strength. The targets this time are not junior officers but ones with at least eight years commissioned service and those lieutenant colonels and colonels who are retirement eligible. The service is offering some waivers to get these officers out the door. If it doesn’t get enough to volunteer, then the service likely would hold a board in early 2007 to pick the ones to go.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…