Reservists will play a key part in the Air Force’s commitment to ramping up its cyber and ISR operations in Fiscal 2015 and beyond, Air Force Reserve chief Lt. Gen. JJ Jackson told an audience at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando on Feb. 13. “As we look into probably the two growth areas that we’re focused on the most, cyber and ISR,” Reserve units are increasing capacity to support those missions, Jackson said. Already, the Reserves has put in place “approximately 10 ISR squadrons and we’ve done that at locations that are able to be 80 percent manned in just three years.” Jackson said there are a number of missions that the Reserve can strongly support, but sometimes the locations of those Reserve missions make them hard to recruit. By having the flexibility to move those missions to other locations, recruitment has ramped up and the Reserves is better able to support the overall Air Force mission.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III rebuffed criticism that the F-35 program has proved too costly and unreliable to serve as the viable backbone of America’s and allies' future fighter fleet on April 30. “I would not categorize the F-35 as a paperweight,” Austin said in response to questioning…