The Air Staff’s director of information services and integration, Maj. Gen. William Lord, told Government Computer News that the Air Force information technology personnel he spoke with during two town hall meetings “appreciated the candor” of being told they would be among the first to face personnel cuts. Lord arranged the town hall sessions during the recent IT conference in Alabama where the news broke about IT personnel being very vulnerable as USAF cuts some 40,000 personnel over the next few years, principally because much of their efforts have made it possible for USAF to streamline its business functions. Lord also told GCN that IT has shifted its focus from refining business practices to “solving warfighting integration issues.” One would think there is still a lot of work to do for IT wienies.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.