The Air Force will not continue involuntary force reductions in Fiscal 2015 as previously planned, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced Tuesday morning. “Enough is enough. We are as low as we are going to go,” the Secretary said during an online Open Door town hall-style meeting. “We have reduced far enough. We will not go leaner, and we will fight to hold on to the numbers now that we have.” In terms of new airmen coming in and experienced airmen staying on, “we need both,” James said. The Fiscal 2014 force shaping was supposed to provide that balance. “Analysis is analysis and real world is the real world,” James said, adding that in her travels over the last year, she has grown less convinced that involuntary force management is needed. The Secretary took questions from Twitter (with the #SecAfchat hashtag), Facebook, Skype, video, and from a live audience at Fort Meade, Md. (DOD report.)
B-21 Raider First Flight Now Postponed to 2023
May 20, 2022
The Air Force says the B-21 Raider won't make its first flight until 2023; about a six-month delay from the last official estimates. No reason was given for the delay. While other programs have recently chalked up schedule slips to supply chain and labor shortages, the Air Force has said…