The Air National Guard has been “clearly … overused,” Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday. Speaking with the Defense Writers Group in Washington, D. C., Levin said he hasn’t had a chance to give the future shape of the Air Guard “the rethinking it deserves,” if indeed it does need a fresh look. However, if the Air Guard is to continue to be used in the way it has been—as an operational force rather than as a strategic reserve—then “it’s got to be recapitalized,” Levin said. “If for whatever reason a decision is made to continue to rely on it to the extent that we have, then we’ve got to provide it with the equipment that [has] been a necessary part of that use,” he said. Air Guard chief Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt told the Senate Appropriation defense subcommittee last week that buying new generation 4.5 fighters—rather than F-22s or F-35s—to keep the Air Guard in the air sovereignty mission is an option on the table. The Government Accountability Office recently released a report saying the Air Guard will have to give up its F-16s to retirement before replacements in the form of F-35s begin arriving.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.