Making Peace in the Total Force: Things are strained between the Air Force’s Active, Guard, and Reserve components, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said Tuesday, but the differences aren’t irreconcilable, and the Total Force “is not broken.” In a speech at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, he said that the situation is “nobody’s fault,” and the arguments between the three in terms of force structure and size are being made because “everybody’s trying to do what they think is best.” But the three elements are still “within visual range” of each other, he said. Along with the Guard and Reserve leadership, “we’ll do it as quickly and smoothly as possible … we’ll figure it out, I promise you,” Welsh insisted.
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
