DOD last week put out data on its recruiting and retention figures for the month of October, covering the active, Guard, and Reserve components of all services. In the active forces, all four services exceeded their recruiting goals. Ditto for four of the six Guard/Reserve components. One that didn’t do very well was the Air National Guard. It signed up only 588 of the 1,010 new airmen it sought, or about 58 percent. On the other hand, ANG retention was about 110 percent of its goal of 986. It’s just a single data point, and a mushy one at that, but it’s something worth watching.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.