The Air Force is just weeks away from launching its revamped format for assembling airmen in air and space expeditionary forces for overseas deployments, according to a release. Effective Oct. 1, the first airmen will deploy under the redesigned AEF construct, under which airmen will have a more stable one-to-two split between deployment and dwell time at home station. The new construct will also keep larger groups of personnel from the same unit together during deployments. “Previously, Air Force specialty codes played a large role in determining an airman’s battle rhythm and deployment location; the redesign focuses on aligning airmen to deploy with their unit,” said Col. Stephen Hart, chief of the Air Force’s war planning and policy division. The redesign will give most, but not all airmen a standardized battle rhythm of six-month deployments separated by 12 months at home. There may still be some airmen in high-demand specialties who deploy under a different scheduling construct, state the Sept. 5 release. Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh, who approved the changes in April 2013, called the new model “a more efficient way to get the job done.”
Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii is trialing novel energy technology to provide electrical power and hydrogen fuel in the kind of isolated and austere outposts the Air Force will need in the Pacific theater for its new Agile Combat Employment way of warfare.