Through the first three quarters of Fiscal 2013, all three Air Force components met or exceeded their numerical accession goals, according to the Defense Department’s latest recruiting statistics. The Air Force’s Active Duty component met its year-to-date target through June by accepting 20,154 accessions, states the Pentagon’s release. The Air National Guard also matched its goal, bringing in 7,788 accessions. Meanwhile, the Air Force Reserve surpassed its year-to-date target by taking on 5,515 accessions, which represented 680 more, or 114 percent, of its goal of 4,835, according to the release. Among the sister services and their reserve components, only the Army Reserve fell short of its accession goal through June. It attracted 19,779 new recruits, 2,572 accessions below its stated goal of 22,351. The Army Reserve has experienced this recruiting shortfall throughout the fiscal year. At least initially, this was intentional as the component started out Fiscal 2013 applying “precision recruiting” to help rebalance its force. (See also our coverage of May’s recruiting numbers.)
The U.S. military needs to wake up to the fact that global dominance is no longer a viable strategy for national defense, because pursuing that unrealizable goal is making the country less safe, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said April 22. Emerging defense technologies like swarms of…