President's Budget Request restores manpower to the Air Force Reserve

  • Published
  • By Air Force Reserve Command
The Department of Defense budget request for fiscal year 2016 includes a number of proposed changes for the Air Force Reserve.
If enacted into law, the DOD budget request would restore 2,100 manpower positions to the Air Force Reserve and increase the Air Force Reserve's presence in a number of mission areas.

"The budget request ensures the Air Force Reserve will remain an integrated, flexible and combat-ready force," said Lt. Gen. James F. Jackson, Chief of the Air Force Reserve and commander of Air Force Reserve Command. "The additional manpower will allow the Air Force Reserve to support Air Force requirements in new and existing missions in the F-35, F-16, C-17, ISR and Cyber."

At Tinker Air Force Base the Air Force recommended a re-phase of the divestiture of seven E-3 aircraft and the 513th Air Control Group to fiscal year 2019. Consistent with the fiscal 2015  budget plan, the fiscal 16 budget plan states the Air Force will add four KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft and associated personnel to the 507th Air Refueling Wing.

"The Air Force, in conjunction with the recommendations of the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force, will finalize its mission area and force composition analysis in the coming months," he said. "Decisions on Reserve basing of C-130s at Pope Field, Keesler Air Force Base, and Little Rock Air Force Base are delayed until the Air Force meets the requirements established by Congress in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act."

Jackson also explained that if the Air Force divests A-10s at Moody AFB, Ga., the Air Force Reserve's classic associate unit, the 476th Fighter Group, will inactivate in 2016.

"Our A-10 units at Whiteman AFB and Davis-Monthan AFB will continue to fly the A-10 until 2019, when they will transition to F-16s," he said. "There are also opportunities with the F-35 at Luke AFB and Hill AFB."

According to Jackson, the 610th Security Forces Squadron at Naval Air Station JRB Fort Worth, Tx. will be inactivated.