The Air Force is in the midst of a series of strategy meetings to figure out how it would function if the government shuts down, Secretary Michael Donley said Tuesday. Members of Congress have so far failed to reach a compromise either to approve a Fiscal 2011 spending bill or extend the current continuing resolution that expires on Friday. “The Department [of Defense] is using a template that was last used in 1995,” when the government last went through a shutdown in the midst of a budget battle, said Donley. USAF is struggling with “the definition of exempt and non-exempt personnel, how that would be applied, how that would be potentially implemented,” he explained. The discussions have thus far not yielded an action plan, he said. Military operations and military personnel supporting those operations comprise “one category of likely-to-be-exempt personnel, but there are variations on that,” said Donley. He said it’s not clear how the civilian or contractor workforce involved in operations would be affected.
The Air Force is spending heavily on F-22 improvements through the end of the decade, suggesting it may not retire the jet in 2030 as it previously planned. New sensors, fuel tanks, communications, and electronic warfare systems are among the upgrades that comprise the package.