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Air Force spending cuts and thinking small
There is a lot of debate about the future of U.S. military capability as the services look for ways to reduce spending, but one has to ask whether the Air Force wants to change how it thinks about its budget. The debate for the Air Force in particular should include how senior leaders really look at their responsibilities to do the right thing within legal limits instead of the legal thing which appears to be the norm today. One could easily make the case that the Air Force is currently wasting millions of dollars needlessly so aircrew members who are not on flying status can obtain and wear issue (free) flight uniforms as a uniform of the day. There are so many justifications given for this practice by those who wear them, but in reality, it is a very expensive perk that underlies a greater need to move away from thinking small by Air Force leaders during a time of monetary austerity.
If the Air Force wanted to move away from thinking small regarding its budget, it could start by making small changes with big impact potential. This does not mean across the board cuts or cutting missions which is small thinking, but better utilization of forces. A sound opportunity for larger thinking resides in the Air Force Reserve component. The duplication, legacy policies, and management overlap are undeniable with regard to the individual reserve management programs which are made up of the Participating Individual Ready Reservists (PIRR) and the Individual Mobilization Augmentees (IMAs). The administrative practices are so outdated and so misunderstood by senior leaders in both the active and reserve forces that it calls for a major shift in thinking by Air Force leaders. Just like the millions of dollars that could be saved by curtailing the practice of issuing flight uniforms to crew members when they are not needed, millions more could be saved if the active component senior leaders would engage more forcefully with the management of the PIRR and IMA reserve programs supporting thousands of reservists.
Much of the PIRR and IMA administration resides within the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) which uses its Readiness Management Group (RMG) to manage the programs. The RMG bureaucracy is almost completely duplicative in nature to active component administrative practices, and minimally congruent with the needs of individual reservists or the assigned/attached unit’s missions. Active units already have well managed processes in place to support integrated individual reservists, including Unit Reserve Coordinators (URCs). When you add in Base IMA Administrators and full time Active Guard Reservists (AGRs) on staff of larger associated or partner units working the same issues, the definition of insanity starts coming into play.
A number of changes could be made to improve the effectiveness of individual reservist programs, but expecting the AFRC leadership to conduct a thorough review with active counterparts is unlikely. What it will take is active component senior leaders stepping up to take ownership of their assigned/attached reservists. The IMA and PIRR programs support “their” missions and continuing to allow split management with AFRC in particular should not be the way the Air Force does business today. Change will only come about at General Welsh’s level or through pressure from the HASC and organizations like the Reserve Officers Association (ROA). There are just too many entrenched tribes and protectors within the Air Force to resist real innovation and thinking large in times of fiscal restraint.
Bartley is the CEO of StratCOA which is a strategy consultancy, a retired colonel, and member of U.S. Representative Martha Roby’s defense and veterans’ advisory committees.
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