Rapid Fire March 7, 2012: FY13 USAF Force Structure | US Aid to Israel

• The US Air Force made its FY13 force structure announcement [PDF] to reflect its strategic guidance [PDF] in how its manpower is allocated. Its reserve is to change about 3,000 jobs in FY13.

• An F-35A Lightning II made – in the words of Team Eglin Public Affairs – a “small step into the next half century of air dominance” by shortening its first training sortie at Eglin AFB to 15 minutes vs. a planned 90 minutes because of a potential fuel leak. Stuff happens, and the pilot did what he was trained to do. Updating doctrine to “maintain air dominance, 15 minutes at a time” does not sound very convincing, nor fair. But could the lofty rhetoric possibly be taken down a couple of notches?

• During yesterday’s House Armed Services Committee hearing on missile defense, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy Brad Robert said the Administration is considering sharing classified data to allay Russia’s concerns over NATO’s plans in Europe.