Orlando, February 18, 2010—One of the Air Force’s key objectives—preserving and enhancing the all-volunteer force—is of particular interest to CMSAF James Roy. The Air Force has been at war in Southwest Asia for 19 years, he noted, and must carefully manage a constantly evolving set of overstressed personnel specialties. Some of the “chronic, critical” Air Force Specialty Codes are predictable. These include Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) and pararescuemen (PJs). But Roy, speaking at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium, added that some stressed AFSCs are unexpected, such as contracts experts and civil engineers. The bottom line is that the Air Force must avoid burning out these in-demand airmen by carefully managing their deployment tempos. Roy said the Air Force is “all in” by being fully dedicated to today’s combat requirements, but it must still “carefully monitor” the stressed AFSCs.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
