BRAC focus on right-sizing total force

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Mitch Gettle
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  The co-chairman of the Air Force's base closure executive group recently discussed the views the Air Force took when considering the Base Realignment and Closure recommendations.

"We have to base our future Air Force on a smaller but more capable force, and organize that force in the most effective way." said Maj. Gen. Gary W. Heckman, assistant deputy chief of Air Force Plans and Programs. "If all the BRAC recommendations are approved, the big thing we accomplish is we get the right force structure, the right sizes for effectiveness, at the best combination of bases."

Three aspects of transformation influence BRAC as well as other endeavors such as the Quadrennial Defense Review.

"There are technological changes, organizational changes and changes in concepts of operations," he said. Considering these changes "we find that when we reset the force to optimum sizes, it not only creates efficiencies, but it also makes our improved technologies and (concept of operations) more effective.

"Previous BRACs have tended to focus on active infrastructure,” he said. “Over the first fours rounds of BRAC, we closed 25 active-duty bases, three Reserve bases and one Guard installation."

How does the Air Force reset the force? For fighter aircraft, General Heckman said 24 aircraft has been found to be the optimum number in a squadron.

"We know historically, and from senior military judgment, that's a really optimum fighting size," General Heckman said. "We've had that re-enforced by some Air Force studies and analyses over the last few years, and have a 1996 (General Accounting Office) report that comes to the same conclusion."

Through force reductions the Air Force has made the effort to maintain the balance of the force and optimize the resources in the flying community.

"Over the last 15 years the force structure in the Air Force has gone down quite a bit -- a third or more," he said. "As we have done that within the active force, we have taken the number of effectively sized squadrons and we've reduced the number. At the request of the Guard, what we have been doing in the Guard force is keeping the number of squadrons; slicing them down to the point that the average fighter squadron now in the Guard is 15."

Squadron size in the Guard became a focal point in commission review of the Air Force BRAC recommendations.

"As we go from today, with a reduced force structure, into a future where we expect the fighter force structure to go down another 20 percent, we just can't afford that kind of inefficiency," the general said. "So what we need to do within the BRAC is to right-size these forces and then put them at the right combination of bases."

The original thought was to close Guard bases that would lose their flying missions; however, the importance of the expeditionary combat support people at these installations changed their thinking, he said.

"These enclaves often deploy independently of the flying unit that happens to be (at that installation)", he said. "They're part of the starting rotation for our expeditionary force, and, importantly, these forces have important state uses for the governors as well.

"So we were convinced in our deliberations that it made more military value sense to leave those expeditionary combat forces in the states where they were, and we'd just shrink the footprint of the installation," the general said. "So we keep the expeditionary support, we right-size the units, and we're also able to turn back the excess infrastructure for local use."

BRAC commissioners are currently reviewing recommendations provided by the Air Force. After an initial cost, the Air Force expects to save about $14 billion over the next 20 years.

If the current BRAC recommendations are approved, the initial investment to move and train all the people and build new infrastructure amounts to $1.8 billion over six years, General Heckman said.

Two components calculate the return on investment -- actual cost savings and manpower savings.

"For BRAC purposes, according to the Department of Defense, these are considered BRAC savings," he said. "It means the dollars you save can be used for other dollar requirements. The manpower savings can be used for either other manpower requirements, which is our intent in the Guard and Reserve, or down the road for cashing in."