Despite missing its monthly recruiting g
oal for the month of May, the Air National Guard is flush with new recruits, ensuring it is ahead of its overall fiscal year goal. The same goes for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, which also came in under their goals last month, according to the latest data just released by the Pentagon. Otherwise, the enlisted recruiting and retention picture for the US military remains strong, with all other components reporting 100 percent or better for May, as they did the previous month. So far this fiscal year, recruiting overall has been up; however, USAF’s top personnel officer, Lt. Gen. Richard Newton, said recently that the service likely will face retention challenges next year in certain shortage career fields.
The Air Force is launching an effort to develop a new stand-off missile with a range of 1,000 nautical miles, or 1,150 miles, that would eventually be used for both air-to-air and air-to-surface missions.