Sen. Cruz Discusses Air Force Modernization and Readiness in Armed Services Committee
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, today participated in a Subcommittee on Airland hearing regarding Air Force modernization and readiness efforts. There, Sen. Cruz questioned Air Force leaders on their efforts to address the shortage of pilots, many of whom train across Texas, the B-21 bomber program, and sustainment of the F-35.
Watch Sen. Cruz’s full line of questioning here. An excerpt is below.
Sen. Cruz: “Thank you Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, thank you for being here. Thank you for your service. The Air Force has reported a shortage of approximately 2,000 pilots, including a shortage of about 950 fighter pilots, which essentially unchanged since last year. Much of the training occurs in Texas from Joint Base San Antonio, Randolph and at Sheppard Air Force Base. And I know they’re working hard every day to resolve the issue. Would you please update the committee on current efforts to address this critical problem?”
Maj. Gen. Robinson: “Senator Cruz, thank you for that question and absolutely the Air Force is laser focused on that problem. The update I would offer is we’ve narrowed the very focused study and analysis on root cause and the situation and how to fix it. We’ve narrowed it down to three main lines of effort. One, requirements. What are the total requirements for the pilot force from squadron all the way up to staff. Two, production. Do we have the production that we need in terms of producing pilots through the entire ecosystem? So initial training and graduate level training all the way through to mission ready pilot. And then three, retention. We have the most control over the requirements in terms of influencing the decisions on that. Very much fiscally informed control over production but we have figured out that production is really the main effort. We’ve got to set the production. Right now, our current target is 14,000 pilots per year, total force. We’ve got to set it there and leave it there. That’s part of the problem, a root cause of where we find ourselves in the position we’re in now is we’ve changed the production over the last 10 to 12 years, up and down, mostly tending downward. And the retention, we’ve got a number of programs that are underway to influence retention to make our airmen want to stay and do this job. And it’s not just aviation bonuses if you will, it’s things like, we have a talent management system that we call, which essentially is a way to give the member a bigger choice in their assignment selection. A voice in where they would like to go for their next assignment, all the way through to things where they can volunteer for long tours overseas. We’ve cut over half our 365 day tours overseas down to six months tours, to again make that more enticing from them to want to stay and effect their quality of service, as well as their quality of life for their families. A number of efforts there. And also ways – on other assignment options, second assignment in place, policy changes to allow them to have more stability for their families, particularly for someone who has a professional spouse. We’re very concerned about the quality of education that they’re children are getting with where they are.”
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