For the first time in six years, the Air Force is planning to grow in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Air Force’s end strength has dropped each year since 2010, when there were nearly 334,200 active-duty airmen. But now, the Air Force is trying to increase its end strength up from 312,980 in 2015 to 317,000 in 2016 \u2014 and it’s pulling out all the stops to do so:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Increasing enlisted accessions from a little more than 24,000 in 2015 to more than 28,000 in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doubling the number of candidates attending Officer Training School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, from 520 in 2015 to more than 1,100 in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Allowing a few hundred airmen who have gone to the Air National Guard or Air Force Reserve to come back on to active duty for a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moving forward with a second year of prior service accessions to allow departed airmen in 85 career fields to come back on active duty if they choose, though no airmen who were cut during the 2014 force management program will be eligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bringing back separated officers in several crucial fields: 14N intelligence, 17D cyberspace operations, 11F fighter pilots and officers in remotely piloted aircraft career fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Air Force is also scrambling to try to hold on to airmen with valuable experience. This year, the Air Force will vastly expand its selective re-enlistment bonus program, which will be open to more than 70 career fields and provide more than $220 million in bonuses. In 2014, the Air Force offered about $178 million in re-enlistment bonuses to airmen in 19 career fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for the first time, drone pilots who agree to serve five more years can get a critical skills retention bonus of $125,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Air Force is also offering high-year tenure extensions to a few hundred high-performing senior airmen through master sergeants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brig. Gen. Brian Kelly, director of military force management policy, said that the Air Force’s growing operational requirements \u2014 fighting the Islamic State group in the Middle East, continuing the war in Afghanistan and bolstering European allies made nervous by Russian aggression in Ukraine \u2014 mean the service is having to boost manning in several areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maintenance is one area where the Air Force has particularly felt the strain. The service is trying to deal with shortages of the most experienced crew chiefs and avionics airmen, which forces squadrons to improvise to keep fighter jets in the air. But despite those workarounds, officials say the maintainer shortages are hurting readiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the 4,000-airman end strength increase will go to bolster these career fields: maintenance; cyber operations; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and nuclear missile. The increased accession levels will help meet those goals. For example, the Air Force brought on a little more than 5,900 new maintainers in 2015, but is planning to bring on more than 7,500 in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the first time in six years, the Air Force is planning to grow in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":42998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[16,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3320],"class_list":["post-20745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"RY2KKX2AYVB5BCD4K2PPKTSIME","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2015\/12\/24\/need-to-know-2016-a-bigger-force\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n