The Air Force expects to send Congress in March the first of five reports on the planned fighter force restructure. That’s the word from Maj. Gen. David Scott, who told the House Appropriations defense panel Feb. 24 that the service has a plan to offset the F-35 program slowdown to “enable the Guard to maintain the capabilities that they have currently today.” In effect, he said it’s a “domino” plan to transition, for instance, active F-16s to the Air Guard as active units acquire the first F-35s. ANG also expects to receive F-35s fairly early, and Scott said, if the F-35 timetable “slips further,” the plan includes modifications to some older F-16s to increase their service lives “just to the outside of 2017.” That was welcome news to Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who noted, “It sounds like you’ve given considerable thought to this.” (Scott’s written testimony)
The Air Force is promoting 22.5 percent of eligible senior master sergeants to chief master sergeant in 2023, the service announced Nov. 28—the highest rate for E-9s in seven years. All told, 506 Airmen were selected from a pool of 2,249 eligible candidates. The full list of those selected will be…