Likely due to the still shaky economy, the military services are continuing to reap recruiting dividends following a banner year in 2009. In the first month of the new fiscal year, according to the latest statistics released by the Pentagon last week, all the services and their reserve components achieved a hundred percent or better toward their enlisted recruiting goals for the month of October. And active duty retention remains on target; there was no corresponding information on reserve retention.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
