In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday, Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force Chief of Staff, told lawmakers asking about the 7,700 airmen fulfilling “in lieu of” taskings for soldiers in such areas as detainee operations, explosive ordnance disposal, interrogation, and logistics, that the total number is “coming down,” since the Army has returned many of them. However, Moseley said that although a majority of the airmen performing ILO jobs have done so within their particular competency, the other 25 percent or so working outside their core competencies “concerns us.” It is those airmen that the Air Force must dedicate time and money to retrain in their USAF specialties.
While the Space Force is still making long-term plans to establish high-fidelity live and virtual test and training ranges in the coming years, officials say they're also working with operators to identify near-term gaps and quickly field capabilities to address them.
