The Civil Air Patrol, the Air Force auxiliary, is now operating under its fully implemented new governance structure, announced CAP officials on Wednesday. The new set-up changed the role of CAP’s leadership and the relationship between its 61,000 volunteers and national headquarters employees, according to the organization’s Jan. 2 release. The changes reinforce the CAP board of governors’ authority to make strategic policy, shift nonstrategic issues to the national commander, focus the wing commanders’ role on operations, and establish a “one CAP” approach to decision-making in which volunteers and headquarters staff work together to achieve common goals, states the release. “The merging of the two staffs—paid and unpaid professionals—provides for a seamless organizational structure,” said CAP National Commander Maj. Gen. Chuck Carr. “We are all on one team now,” he added. The new structure was unveiled last August. Initial implementation began in October. With the structure in place, CAP officials are now focused on implementing the organization’s new two-year strategic plan, according to the release. (Maxwell report by Steve Cox)
The Air Force is planning to invest nearly $1.7 billion to continue modernizing the B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers over the next five years, revising earlier plans to retire those aircraft before the B-21 Raider is fielded in bulk.