? Supervisors at Air Education and Training Command headquarters have begun notifying airmen and civilian workers who will be impacted by the 20-percent reduction in all Defense Department headquarters staffing ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Many of the civilian personnel and most of the airmen whose jobs at AETC are slated for elimination will be offered positions elsewhere in the Air Force, states the command’s Aug. 12 release. The Air Force is also offering voluntary separation and early-retirement incentives for those who cannot be given another position. “We are using all available tools to minimize involuntary impacts on civilian employees,” said Col. Kimberly Toney, AETC director of manpower, personnel, and services. Movement of Active Duty airmen will occur over the next 12 to 36 months, as funding becomes available, states the release. The reductions affect 395 positions at AETC, 194 military and 201 civilians. Of those, 133 positions will shift to the newly established Air Force Installations and Support Center. If there are not enough volunteers to cover the positions that AETC is shedding, the headquarters may have to implement a reduction in force about a year from now, said Toney.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…