Force Structure

Between fiscal year 1986 and 1997, the Air Force will cut its active military personnel from more than 600,00 to 381,000--a 37-percent reduction. Mission forces were reduced at a much greater rate than infrastructure forces; consequently, about two-thirds of present active duty forces are allocated to infrastructure functions. It is possible to further reduce the active Air Force below 381,000 without harming the Air Force's war-fighting capability. The Air Force recently identified a way to reduce active forces by as many as 75,000 additional military personnel beyond fiscal year 1998 and is reviewing options for replacing military personnel assigned to infrastructure jobs with civilians or contractors who may be able to do this work at less cost.

GAO noted that: (1) between fiscal year (FY) 1986 and 1997, the Air Force will reduce its active military personnel from over 600,000 to 381,100, or by 37 percent; (2) mission forces have been reduced at a much greater rate than infrastructure forces during the last decade; (3) as a result, approximately two-thirds of the Air Force's 381,100 active duty personnel are now allocated to infrastructure functions such as installation support and acquisition; (4) further, today's smaller force has a higher ratio of officers than in 1986; (5) potential exists to reduce the active Air Force below the 381,100 minimum level set by Congress, without adversely affecting the Air Force's war-fighting capability; (6) in May 1996, GAO suggested options to consolidate fighter squadrons which, if implemented, would permit the Air Force to maintain the same number of aircraft but carry out its missions with fewer active duty personnel; (7) GAO has also reported that the Air Force could achieve savings by replacing military personnel in some administrative and support positions with civilian employees; (8) for FY 1998, the Air Force plans to seek statutory authority to reduce the active force by about 9,400 below the current minimum; (9) GAO's analysis shows the majority of these planned decreases are in infrastructure functions; (10) prompted by the Secretary of Defense's goal to reduce infrastructure to free funds for force modernization, the Air Force has recently identified a potential to reduce the active force by as many as 75,000 additional military personnel beyond FY 1998; (11) the Air Force is reviewing options for replacing military personnel assigned to infrastructure functions with civilian employees or contractors that may be able to perform some functions at less cost than military personnel; (12) the actual number of active personnel that will ultimately be replaced will depend on the results of continuing Air Force analysis to determine whether such substitutions will be organizationally feasible and cost-effective; (13) the Air Force projects it would have an active wartime shortage of about 19,600 personnel if two major regional conflicts occurred; (14) however, the Air Force does not need additional active personnel to cover this wartime shortage because it has identified ways to compensate for the shortage; and (15) moreover, this shortage would present little risk in carrying out the military strategy since it primarily affects forces that would provide operating support for bases in the United States rather than in the forces that would deploy to war.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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