As if the airlift numbers weren’t sobering enough, USAF says that the typical ANG F-16 squadron today has 15 fighters. The optimum number is 24, or, in the case of experienced ANG forces, 18 per squadron. Eighteen would ensure there are sufficient fighters to perform a given mission. Unless ANG redistributes airframes among fewer units, normal aircraft attrition will take the number of F-16s per ANG squadron in 2017 down to 6.3. Again, says the Air Force, very inefficient.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. still “believes” in his mantra of “Accelerate Change or Lose”—and indicated the doctrinal changes it produced when he was Air Force Chief of Staff played a role in the service’s recent response to Iran’s aerial assault on Israel, he…