Talking with airmen deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, during recent visits to facilities in the region, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley commented on a favored topic—making certain every airman who can deploy does so. He intends to issue new regulations that would make it harder for airmen to get released from deployment cycles. Moseley noted that “on any given day, there are 10,000 airmen who are listed as nondeployable because of some medical reason.” He reckons that about 5,000 have obviously nondeployable conditions, such as being pregnant or having broken bones. The other 5,000, said Moseley, may have physical problems but they are ones that shouldn’t exclude them from deploying or that could be handled by the military’s in-theater medical forces.
When the Air Force sets a new program baseline for the B-52 re-engining this fall, there will be “some” cost increase, because the project wasn't previously fully funded, and the Air Force has a better handle on actual supplier costs and knowledge from ground testing, program officials said.