The Air Force will not continue involuntary force reductions in Fiscal 2015 as previously planned, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced Tuesday morning. “Enough is enough. We are as low as we are going to go,” the Secretary said during an online Open Door town hall-style meeting. “We have reduced far enough. We will not go leaner, and we will fight to hold on to the numbers now that we have.” In terms of new airmen coming in and experienced airmen staying on, “we need both,” James said. The Fiscal 2014 force shaping was supposed to provide that balance. “Analysis is analysis and real world is the real world,” James said, adding that in her travels over the last year, she has grown less convinced that involuntary force management is needed. The Secretary took questions from Twitter (with the #SecAfchat hashtag), Facebook, Skype, video, and from a live audience at Fort Meade, Md. (DOD report.)
The Air Force displayed all the firepower it has amassed on Okinawa in an unusually diverse show of force this week. IIn a May 6 “Elephant Walk,” Kadena Air Base showcased 24 F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters, eight F-15E Strike Eagles; two U.S. Army Patriot anti-missile batteries near the runway; and…