Reserve End Strength Back on Upward Slope

Air Force Reserve Command boss Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner confirmed at a Heritage Foundation presentation Thursday in Washington, D.C., that Reserve end strength is headed back up—and will reach an end strength of around 73,000 by 2013. Like the active duty Air Force, the Reserves began shedding personnel, reaching 67,400 before mission needs halted the drawdown. The first installment will be between 1,800 to 2,200 personnel in the Fiscal 2010 budget for in-demand missions such as unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber warfare, intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance analysis, and the nuclear enterprise. (AFRC already has become USAF’s nuclear-capable B-52H formal training unit). Explaining the new billets, Stenner said, “They’re not rebates to what we took out; they’re new missions.” Continue