Altering Service Plan For Guard, Reserve Could Impact Force Structure

摘要

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz says lawmakers who oppose the service's plans to retire and realign aircraft could negatively impact the service's surge and rotational capabilities. Schwartz, during a Feb. 29 breakfast with reporters, said the Air Force has been focusing on sustaining a "right balance" while it moves forward with the retirement of aircraft, such as the A-10, as part of its fiscal year 2013 budget request. The Air Force plans to retire five A-10 squadrons from its force - a move that plays into a larger reorganization designed to achieve $8.7 billion in savings across the active and reserve components, according to a Feb. 3 Air Force-issued white paper on force-structure changes. "If Congress decides not to proceed with some, or all, of our recommendations, it is a zero-sum game," he said. "And the thing that I lose sleep over is that getting some of this back to us, saying, 'We can't do this, we can't do that, but I'm not going to give you the money either.'"