Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced last week that the command billet for US Air Forces in Europe will be for a three-star general in the future and no longer a four-star post. The same applies for the heads of the Army and Navy components of US European Command, he said. It is “no longer necessary to retain four-star service component headquarters for [EUCOM], each of which is too large and too senior given the number of troops they lead and the military operations they oversee,” Gates told reporters during a Pentagon briefing discussing Defense Department-wide changes to shed excess overhead. Accordingly, he said, “These commands will be reduced to the three-star level, with concurrent streamlining in the headquarters and personnel staff.” Overall, Gates said he intends to eliminate or downgrade more than 80 general- or flag-officer billets across DOD. (Gates-Mullen transcript)
CSAF: F-22 Not in USAF’s Long-Term Plan
May 12, 2021
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. wants to neck down the Air Force's fighter inventory from seven fleets to four, and the F-22 is not on his short list. The extant seven-fleet mix of fighters will need to be reduced to “four, … plus one,” Brown…