{"id":39432,"date":"2024-03-11T19:29:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T19:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/03\/11\/air-force-plans-for-more-flying-flat-workforce-in-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:19:10","slug":"air-force-plans-for-more-flying-flat-workforce-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2024\/03\/11\/air-force-plans-for-more-flying-flat-workforce-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force plans for more flying, flat workforce in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>This story was updated March 11 at 10:18 p.m. with additional information on sustainment funding and the Space Force.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Department of the Air Force is asking for $217.5 billion in its fiscal year 2025 budget request, released Monday, in an effort to largely maintain the department\u2019s status quo as its services juggle a manpower crunch and a surge in operational requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force accounts for $188.1 billion of that pie \u2014 a 1.6% increase above the service\u2019s request for fiscal year 2024, which Congress has not yet enacted. The Space Force hopes to receive $29.4 billion next fiscal year, a 2% dip below its previous request.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2024\/03\/04\/heres-how-the-air-forces-new-task-forces-will-reshape-deployments\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/240130-F-MO425-9005.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Here\u2019s how the Air Force\u2019s new task forces will reshape deployments<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Air task forces launching this summer are expected to pave the way for more capable rotational forces and better-prepared bases.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters Friday that the budget request largely \u201cgoes to taking care of the current force,\u201d including an \u201cacceptable\u201d level of spending on troop and civilian pay and readiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force wants $75.6 billion for operations and maintenance in its base budget next year, up from the $73.5 billion it sought in fiscal year 2024, plus another $5.9 billion to directly fund deployed operations. It\u2019s also seeking $41.7 billion for personnel costs for fiscal 2025, an increase from $40.9 billion in the current year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new ask would also fund a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2024\/03\/11\/us-air-force-budget-request-leans-toward-rd-trims-fighter-purchases\/\" target=\"_blank\">spike in the service\u2019s modernization efforts<\/a>, including a nearly $1 billion boost to pursue more advanced fighters and drone wingmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy priority is to get to a next generation of capabilities as quickly as we can because of what China is doing in terms of their modernization,\u201d Kendall said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of Kendall\u2019s biggest initiatives, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2024\/02\/13\/air-force-unveils-command-changes-wing-plans-in-bid-to-outpace-china\/\" target=\"_blank\">sweeping set of plans<\/a> to better prepare the Air Force to outpace China\u2019s military ambitions, is not expected to significantly impact costs, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2024\/03\/11\/us-air-force-budget-request-leans-toward-rd-trims-fighter-purchases\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/F-15EX-August-2023-test.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US Air Force budget request leans toward R&#038;D, trims fighter purchases<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Air Force plans to trim the number of F-15EXs it buys in 2025 from 24 to 18, and cap the fleet at 98.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat we\u2019re talking about with the reoptimization is creating some new organizations, but they will be created out of pieces that we already have,\u201d Kendall said. \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about big manpower increases, and we\u2019re going to minimize, the extent we can, the movement of people, \u2026 the acquisition of real estate, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The service may incur some costs associated with reconfiguring how it deploys, as it launches <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2024\/03\/04\/heres-how-the-air-forces-new-task-forces-will-reshape-deployments\/\">experimental air task forces<\/a> this summer to develop deployable \u201cunits of action,\u201d or combat wings that can deploy on a predictable schedule while leaving enough assets and personnel at home to avoid hamstringing their home base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re going to take a hard look at what we have in our units to ensure we have everything we actually need to go fight,\u201d Kendall said. \u201cI expect we\u2019re going to find some shortfalls when we do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the time being, the department\u2019s military workforce aims to largely plateau at its current level. The Department of the Air Force wants 504,500 enlisted and officer jobs across the active duty Air Force and Space Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve next year, down from the 512,100 personnel that leaders sought for 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The newest request nearly matches end-strength numbers authorized by Congress in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The active duty Air Force would account for 320,000 of those jobs, down from the 324,700 it sought in fiscal 2024. Congress opted to cut the total number of active duty Air Force billets to 320,000 for 2024, saying the service\u2019s lackluster recruiting didn\u2019t warrant additional jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2024\/02\/13\/air-force-unveils-command-changes-wing-plans-in-bid-to-outpace-china\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/8237245.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Air Force unveils command changes, wing plans in bid to outpace China<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">A sweeping set of proposals could comprise one of the Department of the Air Force&#039;s most significant reorganizations since the end of the Cold War.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force also seeks a total force of 107,700 jobs for the Air National Guard, slightly fewer than the 108,400 billets it wanted last year, but a boost over the 105,000 currently authorized by Congress. The Reserve would add 100 billets. The Space Force, the smallest of the military branches, would add 400 billets for 9,800 uniformed jobs in total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2022\/09\/24\/whats-missing-from-the-conversation-on-air-force-recruiting\/\" target=\"_blank\">narrowly hit its active duty recruiting goal in 2022<\/a> before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2023\/09\/14\/entire-air-force-to-miss-recruiting-goal-the-first-failure-since-1999\/\" target=\"_blank\">falling about 10% short in 2023<\/a>. The fiscal 2025 budget ask will offer funds for \u201cthe number of airmen we realistically believe we can bring into the Air Force this year,\u201d spokesperson Ann Stefanek said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That could mean reassessing how many airmen the Air Force wants in each of its career fields for the year ahead. Air Force spokesperson Maj. Annabel Monroe told Air Force Times that the service is currently considering those impacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the first year that the 4-year-old Space Force won\u2019t absorb missions from the other services, the Air Force\u2019s uniformed budget chief Maj. Gen. Michael Greiner told reporters Monday. The service finished taking over the last of those missions \u2014 the Army\u2019s Joint Tactical Ground Station missile-warning program, which includes four ground systems overseas that gather and disseminate data from overhead sensors \u2014 in October. That mission now falls under Space Force Delta 4 at Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe think the growth of 400 [guardians] keeps us lean, keeps us agile, but also allows us the right number there to get after the mission set,\u201d Greiner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If enacted by Congress, airmen and guardians would see a 4.5% pay raise, a 4.2% increase in their housing allowance and a 4.5% subsistence allowance raise. It also includes $1.1 billion in bonuses and retention pay for 118,000 critical positions, including $327 million for aviation jobs and $21 million to retain cyber specialists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force also plans to spend $9.2 billion, up from a projected $9 billion last year, to fund 1.1 million flying hours across the force. The slight uptick in flight time \u2014 about 37,000 hours over the 2024 request \u2014 comes amid a spike in operational requirements due to wars in Europe and the Middle East, as well as the Air Force\u2019s struggle to fully staff its pilot corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kendall said he has promised aviators that he would not cut flying hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere was increasing risk if we did that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That comes as the service tries to strike the right balance between sustaining its aging fleet and bringing new equipment online. The Air Force\u2019s $18.8 billion funding request for weapon system sustainment would cover 87% of its maintenance needs in fiscal year 2025, according to the service\u2019s budget documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force needs an additional $1 billion for weapons systems sustainment and flying hours to keep pace with fiscal year 2024, said Kristyn Jones, who is performing the duties of the Air Force undersecretary and also serves as its civilian budget chief. And the Air Force is already trying to gird against steep declines in the sustainment budget in the five years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s something that we\u2019re looking at as we\u2019re planning for [fiscal] \u201826,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHow can we ramp back our readiness without too negatively impacting the modernization programs that we have?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The service expects to shrink its inventory from 5,032 aircraft to 4,903 by the end of September 2025 as it pursues plans to strike outdated platforms \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2024\/02\/09\/davis-monthan-air-force-base-begins-retiring-a-10-fleet\/\" target=\"_blank\">including its A-10 Thunderbolt II <\/a>attack plane, KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refuelers and more \u2014 from its rolls while bringing on airframes like the F-15EX Eagle II fighter, B-21 Raider bomber and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2023\/06\/29\/t-7-red-hawk-trainer-jet-takes-its-first-flight\/\" target=\"_blank\">T-7A Red Hawk trainer jet<\/a>. The Air Force hopes to spend $233 million to begin buying training-ready T-7s, which will replace the T-38 Talon jet, in fiscal 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the active duty Air Force looks to curb its perennial pilot shortage, Kendall on Friday said keeping the six-decade-old T-38s flying is one of the biggest impediments to fixing the aviator pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re waiting for the T-7 to come online to replace it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Air Force&#8217;s fiscal year 2025 budget request largely maintains the current workforce while boosting research-and-development spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":71976,"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":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[101,16,26,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3380],"class_list":["post-39432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QF5CYZENAZGJRHK6HLTCRHM4BU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2024\/03\/11\/air-force-plans-for-more-flying-flat-workforce-in-2025\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Air Force plans for more flying, flat workforce in 2025 - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Air Force&#039;s fiscal year 2025 budget request largely maintains the current workforce while boosting research-and-development spending.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Air Force plans for more flying, flat workforce in 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Air Force&#039;s fiscal year 2025 budget request largely maintains the current workforce while boosting research-and-development spending.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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