Air Force Reserve Command boss Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner confirmed at a Heritage Foundation presentation Thursday in Washington, D.C., that Reserve end strength is headed back up—and will reach an end strength of around 73,000 by 2013. Like the active duty Air Force, the Reserves began shedding personnel, reaching 67,400 before mission needs halted the drawdown. The first installment will be between 1,800 to 2,200 personnel in the Fiscal 2010 budget for in-demand missions such as unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber warfare, intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance analysis, and the nuclear enterprise. (AFRC already has become USAF’s nuclear-capable B-52H formal training unit). Explaining the new billets, Stenner said, “They’re not rebates to what we took out; they’re new missions.” Continue
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.