The Air Force now believes it should only reduce the service by 20,000 people, rather than 40,000. However, a senior service official speaking on background Friday said that the reduction number depends on getting additional funding (see above)—without that the Air Force will have to stick with the 40,000 cut. If service leaders succeed in gaining extra funding, the new 2009 end strength number would be 328,000. If not, the bottom will be around 316,000. (This must be what Gen. Tom Hobbins was talking about in December.)
A new Space Force partnership with Blue Origin to expand payload processing capacity at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., will allow the launch range to support as many as 16 more missions per year.
