Force Structure Briefing

A senior Air Force official will brief Congress tomorrow on the service's recommendation for where to base 32 cargo aircraft.

Lt. Gen. Michael Moeller, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs, said today during an Air Force Association breakfast that he expects to tell Congress on Wednesday the recommendations of the service's Intra-Theater Airlift Working Group.

The Air Force established the group to address a congressional mandate in the fiscal year 2013 Defense Authorization Act that the service retain 32 cargo aircraft as part of its force-structure strategy. To date, the group has briefed Air Force Secretary Michael Donley on its recommendations but refrained from providing that information to Congress until incoming Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had the opportunity to review and approve it, Moeller said.

"The delay was to make sure that we had the opportunity to brief the new secretary of defense. [We] wanted to make sure that in his first week on the job there were no surprises," he said.

The Air Force plans to retain C-130 cargo aircraft only, even though Congress gave the service the option of choosing a mix of C-130s and C-27Js. Moeller told Inside the Air Force following the breakfast that those states that have already seen changes to their aircraft inventory and those that were due to receive new missions would not benefit from the service's C-130 basing decision.

"But for the units that were harmed by FY-13, those are the units specifically that we looked at. And then how you add capabilities back in, it's very specific, and you'll have to wait till tomorrow," he said.