Some 30,000 airmen are currently forward-deployed at 151 locations worldwide, mostly in Southwest Asia, supporting joint and coalition operations, said CMSAF James Roy. “While our combat forces are no longer in Iraq, there are still more than 23,000 airmen deployed to the US Central Command area of operations, with nearly 4,000 filling joint expeditionary taskings,” Roy told members of the House Appropriations Committee’s military construction and veterans affairs panel. He added, “These airmen are on the frontlines with their fellow soldiers, sailors, and marines.” Another 133,000 Total Force airmen provide combat support from their home station in areas like intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance, nuclear deterrence, global strike, and cyber operations, said Roy in his Feb. 16 testimony. While recruiting and retention have been strong, “we are still concerned about meeting manning requirements in a number of career fields, including contracting, career enlisted aviators, command and control specialties, intelligence, civil engineers, and public affairs,” said Roy. (Roy’s prepared statement)
The Air Force plans to add external weapons pylons on the B-1B bomber, both to increase the number of aircraft that can test hypersonic missiles and expand the Lancer’s loadout as USAF transitions to the B-21 bomber.