Force Shaping

<p>Air Force Drawdown - What will happen to the Air Force? The United States Air Force's downsizing will make it difficult to sustain it current Operational Tempo (OPSTEMPO). When you remove 40000 people in a five year period unit readiness will suffer dramatically. The drawdown is an effort to recapitalize their weapon systems. The Secretary of the Air Force has testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Air Force needs to transform to a smaller leaner and more capable force to face future opponents. There are voluntary and involuntary programs available to pare the force to 316000 personnel. If voluntary programs are ineffective the Air Force will turn to involuntary means. This drawdown will affect the following areas of the Air Force: recruiting retention and mission readiness. These three areas are important to the sustainment of the Air Force. Even though they are in a drawdown they still need to recruit. If they fail to recruit then a bathtub will be created that will last for ten to fifteen years. The question they need to ask themselves is Why would anyone want to join an organization with the knowledge that the will be asked to leave two or three years later? Whenever you are hired for a job you can always be fired. However why apply for a job if you knew you were going to be fired or let go. Additionally they need to recruit individuals who can assist in their goal of recapitalizing the force. By focusing recruiting to people with technical type of degrees (i.e. engineering meteorology) they can ensure that their research and development teams are well equipped and ready to design new weapons systems.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>