The Air Force and its reserve components met their recruiting goals for the fiscal year to date through July, according to the Pentagon’s newest data, released Wednesday. USAF’s active duty component brought in 23,210 recruits through the first 10 months of Fiscal 2011, exactly meeting its accession goal for the year so far, according to the numbers. The Air National Guard has attracted 5,730 accessions through July, six more than its year-to-date goal. Similarly, the Air Force Reserve is tracking 12 recruits ahead of its goal of 7,632 through July. Fiscal 2011 is shaping up to be “a banner year” for the Air Force in recruiting, with the service meeting its accession requirements “at an unprecedented level of excellence,” said Brig. Gen. Balan Ayyar, Air Force Recruiting Service commander, in a release. Among the other services and their reserve components, only the Army National Guard did not meet or exceed its recruiting goal through July. (See also our previous entry on the recruiting numbers through June.)
After years of experiments and tests, senior Air Force leaders say they're on the verge of using C-17s and other cargo aircraft to launch cruise missiles via airdrop, touting the development as a way to bolster the combat fleet and a major shift in the service’s mindset.