The strain of fighting two wars, trying to take care of airmen and their families back home, and preparing for the future has taken its toll on the Air Force. “We were doing so much that our readiness rates were actually decreasing,” said Gen. William Fraser, Air Combat Command commander. In an effort to address the problem, ACC has conducted a “readiness review,” reaching out to combatant commanders to see what capabilities they expect airmen to bring to the table. ACC officials now are in the process of trying to prioritize those mission sets and figure out which should fall under mandatory training and which skills should fall in to the “familiarization category,” Fraser said Tuesday during an Air Force Association-sponsored Air Force Breakfast Series presentation in Arlington, Va. ACC will present the results to the Air Force Secretary and Chief of Staff early next year at the Corona South leadership summit.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.