The struggle was most heated over the Air Guard’s fighter forces. Various press reports and public statements point to instances in which the BRAC panel sided with ANG and turned aside the Air Force’s plans. Examples: the Portland, Ore., ANG unit will not lose its F-15 fighters, as the Pentagon proposed, but will keep all of them and remain open; the Fort Smith, Ark., ANG unit wound up with 18 A-10 fighters, rather than none, as DOD proposed; the Great Falls, Mont., Guard unit will have 15 F-16s instead of none; the Duluth, Minn., ANG unit will keep 15 F-16s instead of none.
The Air Force achieved its goal of recruiting 32,750 Active-Duty enlisted Airmen for 2026 five months ahead of schedule, military officials said this week—its biggest recruiting year in more than two decades.