The Air Force should return to a militia model where the majority of the force—equipment and personnel—is in the reserve components, said retired Gen. Ronald Fogleman, former Chief of Staff. “What we’re doing today is paying for manpower and starving procurement,” Fogleman told members of the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force at the panel’s public hearing in Arlington, Va., on July 23. “There is room for tiered readiness” in the reserve forces, said Fogleman, according to the committee’s release summarizing the hearing. However, Lt. Gen. Michael Moeller, deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs, told the panel that tiered readiness doesn’t work for the Air Force because “we are in full usage all the time.” Moeller, who also leads the service’s Total Force Task Force, also updated the commission on the task force’s early findings, saying it has identified about 45 distinct mission sets that the Air Force must look at individually, according to the release. Commission Executive Director James Blackwell also announced that due to budget sequestration, the commission would defer site visits as much as possible until Fiscal 2014, employing video teleconferences where possible for the remainder of this fiscal year. (Commission website) (See also Rebooting the Total Force from Air Force Magazine’s July issue.)
Amid a high-profile recruiting crisis, Air Force leaders and experts have increasingly noted the challenging long-term trends the service will face in enticing young Americans to sign up—decreasing eligibility to serve, less propensity to do so, and less familiarity with the military. But while those same leaders say there’s no “silver…