Eric Fanning, acting secretary of the Air Force, has said the branch must reduce the size of its workforce despite sequester relief in order to protect investments, the American Forces Press Service reported Friday.
Amaani Lyle writes Fanning told a press conference Friday that additional funding under the two-year deal reached by lawmakers will help preserve military readiness programs.
However, resizing is necessary “to shape an Air Force that we can keep ready [and] we can’t do these cuts individually, ad hoc, in isolation,” Fanning told reporters, Lyle writes.
He added the service’s leadership will work to meet national security goals as the Pentagon’s budget takes shape, AFPS reports.
“We will make the decisions that we can, as quickly as we can, as transparently as we can … to get the Air Force back to that ‘new normal,’†he added, according to the article.
“The Air Force was already in a 20-year readiness decline, something we were just starting to address when sequestration hit,†said Fanning.
Fanning will return to his role as undersecretary of defense for the Air Force following the confirmation of Deborah Lee James as the service’s top civilian leader.
