What’s Driving the Personnel Cuts: Air Force leaders point to a range of initiatives—from streamlining depot maintenance to making personnel cuts—as the means by which they can hedge enough funds to recapitalize and modernize the force. We’ve already reported that USAF plans to cut some 57,000 personnel over the next five years. Driving that reduction, said Air Force budget director Maj. Gen. Frank Faykes, is the fact that over the last 10 years personnel costs nearly doubled even though the number of personnel remained “relatively constant.”
The Pentagon is counting on Congress to navigate a legislative tightrope and pass a party-line bill to fund nearly a quarter of its $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal 2027, including billions of dollars for top priorities like Golden Dome, the F-35, munitions, and unmanned systems. Experts and lawmakers from…