Daily Report

The Air Force late Tuesday issued its proposed force structure, realignment, and management actions in support of President Obama's Fiscal 2011 budget submission. The announcement outlines personnel changes and reassignment of aircraft next fiscal year. The changes involve more than 13,000 active duty, reserve, and civilian positions—some 2,450 active duty, 1,300 Air Force Reserve, 220 Air National Guard, and 9,200 civilian slots. They include contractor-to-civilian conversions (34 percent), joint basing actions (16 percent), Air Force Reserve end strength increase (12 percent), and the boost in intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance manpower (11 percent). "The Air Force continues to support new and emerging missions while making every effort to remedy the stress experienced by critically manned career fields,” said Gen. Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff. Daily Report will have more coverage on equipment changes. (SAF/PA release) (Fiscal 2011 force structure announcement and briefing charts, caution large file)

The Air Force's proposed force structure realignments for Fiscal 2011, issued late Tuesday, include details on the compromise deal concerning the transfer of Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve C-130s to Little Rock AFB, Ark. According to the force structure announcement, the service now intends to move 18 C-130Hs temporarily from multiple ANG and Reserve locations to support the reserve component training unit being established at Little Rock. But as new C-130Js continue to enter the fleet and legacy C-130 training requirements ebb, those C-130Hs will return to their home states. This compromise came after the initial plan involving a permanent move of the C-130s met with strong Congressional resistance. As part of this compromise, members of West Virginia's Congressional delegation announced already on Monday that the state's 130th Airlift Wing in Charleston will not be transferring two of its C-130s to Little Rock. (West Virginia lawmakers joint statement)

The Air Force publicly announced Tuesday that the Ohio Air National Guard's 178th Fighter Wing in Springfield will gain three missions over the next several years as it loses its F-16 training role per BRAC 2005. Springfield, located northeast of Dayton not far from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, will host a ground control station for operating MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted aircraft in combat zones and will serve as an interim site for F-16 bulkhead repair, service officials said. The wing's Air Guardsmen will also support the operations of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson. “The overall manning at Springfield will remain the same,” said Maj. Gen. Patrick Moisio, ANG deputy director. According to local press reports the new missions will retain more than 860 jobs at the Air Guard base. (For more see Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) May 7 release; 178th FW May 11 release by Maj. Lindsay Logsdon; Tuesday's Springfield News-Sun report, Monday's WHIO TV report, and May 7 News-Sun report.)

The House Armed Services Committee starts marking up the Fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill on Wednesday. Both the strategic forces subcommittee and the military personnel panel are set to act on the legislation, followed on Thursday by the panels on...

The Senate on May 7 confirmed the nomination of Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander to receive a fourth star and take charge of US Cyber Command, the nascent organization that will lead efforts to protect the US military’s cyber network...

Raytheon announced Monday that it has received a $34.4 million contract to continue design work on the updated version of the laser-guided Maverick missile that it is building for the Air Force. The company says this newest version of Laser...

Air Force Reservists from the 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown ARS, Ohio, continue to operate two specially modified C-130H aircraft from Stennis, Miss., to spray dispersing agent on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Tampa Tribune reported...

A C-130 transport from the Alaska Air National Guard’s 144th Airlift Squadron at Kulis Air National Guard Base on May 8 brought 39 US military personnel to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to participate in exercise Pacific Angel 10-2 that...

Herman S. Wolk, a long-time contributor to Air Force Magazine, died May 6 after a battle with lung cancer. Wolk served for nearly 50 years as an Air Force historian, starting his career in 1959 at Strategic Air Command and...

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, May 5-7, 2010 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 71 177 215 7,882 CAS/Armed Recon 68 230 298 11,786 Airlift 508 508 21,653 Air refueling 141 141 5,448 Rescue 91 91 1,887 Total...