The Air Force Wants to Add 74 Operational Squadrons. Here’s the Breakdown

The Air Force Wants to Add 74 Operational Squadrons. Here’s the Breakdown
The Air Force would add seven operational fighter squadrons to its ranks under an expansion plan announced Monday. (1st Lt. Lauren Linscott/Air Force)

The Air Force's top leaders want to boost the number of operational squadrons from 312 to 386 over the next seven to 12 years, the service's top civilian announced Monday.

Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson revealed the plan in remarks during the Air Force Association's Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md. The announcement did not include updated end strength figures or plans to pay for the additional 74 squadrons.

Those squadrons are critical to the Air Force's ability to defeat violent extremists and maintain readiness, Wilson said.

“What we know from analysis … the Air Force is too small for what the nation expects from us,” Wilson said, noting the current 312 operational squadrons are not enough. “So what will it take? 386.”

The Air Force is tasked with maintaining readiness to fight, providing a nuclear deterrent, managing violent extremists, and defeating big powers, she said.

The Air Force has spent the past six months researching the force strength required to accomplish those missions, Wilson said. She did not indicate the number of personnel needed to grow the force, nor how the increase would be funded.

Squadrons are the basic organizational unit of the Air Force. Wilson called them “the clenched fist of American resolve.”

air-force-chart

Plans include the following squadron additions by the 2025 to 2030 time frame:

  • 1 airlift squadron, for a total of 54.
  • 5 bomber squadrons, for a total of 14.
  • 9 combat search and rescue squadrons, for a total of 36
  • 22 command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance squadrons, for a total of 62, by far the largest increase.
  • 7 fighter squadrons, for a total of 62.
  • 2 strike/reconnaissance remotely piloted aircraft squadrons, for a total of 27.
  • 7 space squadrons, for a total of 23.
  • 7 special operations forces squadrons, for a total of 27.
  • 14 tanker squadrons, for a total of 54.

Cyber and missile squadron totals would remain at 18 and nine, respectively, according to an Air Force chart; they would require “modernization … with no size increase,” per the chart.

Wilson said the United States has monitored developing powers, including Russia, which conducted its largest training exercise ever last week, and China, which recently declared its first aircraft carrier to be combat-ready.

“We must see the world as it is and that is why the national defense strategy explicitly recognizes that we have returned to an era of great power competition,” she said. “We must be prepared.”

Wilson's speech covered other recent topics of interest for the Air Force, including plans to establish a Space Force by working with the Joint Staff under the guidance of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and President Donald Trump. She also discussed the removal of 246 Air Force instructions and regulations over the past year, rules that Wilson said were unnecessary. Additional cuts could be forthcoming.

Amanda Dolasinski is MOAA's staff writer. She can be reached at amandad@moaa.org. Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMOAA.

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