KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — The Air Force is looking at combining support functions across its 10 major commands to save money and cut military and civilian personnel jobs from the service, Air Force officials said.
Air Force Chief Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley first mentioned a plan to streamline the commands in an interview with InsideDefense.com published March 15 on the defense news service’s Web site. According to the report, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, based at Ramstein Air Base, and Pacific Air Forces, based at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, would be among the first major commands to see changes.
The commands would keep their four-star commanders, but operational units would deal directly with Air Combat Command, according to the article. Maj. Glen Roberts, Moseley’s spokesman, confirmed that the Air Force is looking into merging commands but hasn’t made a final decision on any of the changes.
“We’re still working through a lot of the issues,” he said by telephone from the Pentagon. Top Air Force officials plan to meet to discuss the issue, and a decision could come in 30 days, he added.
Under the plan, none of the major commands would be eliminated, but jobs would be consolidated. Some commands would report to a single command in the U.S. Moseley was quoted in the InsideDefense.com’s Inside the Pentagon section as saying personnel and civil engineering positions could be among the jobs shifted from some major commands to a single, large command.
“Certainly, he’s talked about how we can streamline some functions,” Roberts said. “Do we need support elements at every single [major command], or is it more efficient overall to move some of those support functions to a central location in the [continental United States], where they can support all of our bases and units and we can gain some efficiencies that way?
“The driving force here is not necessarily to save money,” he added, “but it’s to present forces in the most efficient and able way possible.”
The Air Force is looking at cutting as many 59,000 people — up to 40,000 active-duty — from its ranks as part of a plan by the service to become more efficient for the future, Roberts said. Some of those job cuts could be a result of the consolidation.
Capt. Jonathan Friedman, a USAFE spokesman reached Wednesday afternoon, said USAFE experts are looking at each staff position to make recommendations to the Pentagon. USAFE oversees 16 bases across Europe and includes 73,000 people, including 26,000 active-duty airmen, according to the headquarters’ Web site. Gen. Tom Hobbins took over the command last year.
In addition to USAFE and PACAF, Air Force Special Operations Command based at Hurlburt Field in Florida could become a subordinate of Air Combat Command, the article said.
