The Air Force plans in January to begin reviewing line of the Air Force lieutenants four times each year for promotion to captain instead of only once a year as has been the process, according to an Air Force release. This way lieutenants identified for force shaping cuts will have a chance to be selected for promotion, which they can carry over to reserve components or sister services after separating from the active Air Force.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.


