Air Force officials have discovered that some records lacked a required training report when the recent Force Shaping Board met to consider which of some 2,100 junior officers had to leave the service. Some 192 of the 844 (an earlier report said 843) lieutenants notified that they would not be retained will have their records reconsidered by a special board scheduled to meet on June 26. The said 192 have until June 19 to let the Air Force know if they want to be reconsidered. All on the “move-on” list must leave the service by this fall. This force-shaping endeavor is not part of the upcoming round in which the service plans to trim its ranks by 40,000 over the next five years.
The Pentagon’s fiscal 2026 defense budget, submitted to Congress last week, accelerates the downsizing of the U.S. Air Force. It proposes divesting 340 aircraft, while only acquiring 76. These cuts risk the Air Force’s ability prevail. “Peace through strength” has...
