Starting next month, Air Force Reserve Command will begin a year-long trial of the new force support structure already instituted by active duty units. Reserve mission support squadrons and services squadrons will merge at seven locations throughout the United States for the evaluation, thereby combining their manpower and personnel functions with services, AFRC said in a release Sept. 4. “By combining [them] under one manager, we will reduce overall costs and give our people more flexibility to respond to their customers,” said Col. Joseph Vivori, AFRC’s director of manpower and personnel. The stand-alone test locations are March ARB, Calif.; NAS JRB Ft. Worth, Tex.; and Youngstown ARS, Ohio. The test locations that will receive some support from their active duty hosts are MacDill AFB, Fla.; Hill AFB, Utah; Elmendorf AFB, Alaska; and McGuire AFB, N.J. Upon completion of the trial, AFRC said it will determine how to implement force support squadrons across the entire command.
The U.S. military is sending more fighter jets to the Middle East to step up its war with Iran, adding to what is already the largest buildup of airpower in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. For now, the operation shows little sign of coming to a quick…