The Air Force will likely have to resort to involuntary separation efforts to cut manning to authorized end strength levels in Fiscal 2015, Air Force manpower chief Lt. Gen. Samuel Cox told Senate legislators Wednesday. “The Air Force would prefer to reduce the force [over the next five years] through voluntary measures alone,” Cox told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel on April 9. Given high retention rates, the Air Force plans to “accelerate” voluntary force management programs in Fiscal 14, he said. In FY ’15, however, the “military end strength reductions will require a more aggressive approach,” stressed Cox noting that the Air Force will add involuntary force shaping, reduction, review, and quality of force boards, on top of the FY ’14 voluntary measures. (Cox prepared testimony.)
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.