Active and Reserve airmen at Barksdale AFB, La., have formed the Air Force’s first consolidated command post, which will provide a “more uniformly trained force,” said Lt. Col. Anthony Switalski, Barksdale Command Post chief. The new Total Force entity still faces several months of consolidation efforts, but once done, Switalski said, that controllers on duty, whether active or Reserve, will “be providing command and control for both wings”—the Air Combat Command 2nd Bomb Wing and Air Force Reserve Command 917th Wing. (917th Wing report by MSgt. Sherri Bohannon)
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.