Money Matters

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh sent a memo to the service's general officers this week updating them on the financial difficulties the Air Force is facing following a recently passed congressional appropriations bill.

In a March 27 memo obtained by Inside the Air Force, Welsh wrote that when Congress crafted an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2013, it provided the Defense Department with "much needed flexibility," like the ability to invest in new start programs and reprogram funding, but that the bill "does virtually nothing to mitigate sequestration." As a result, the Air Force is scaling back on training exercises, requalification courses and is still considering the possibility of implementing furloughs later this year, he wrote.

"Civilian furloughs are still on the table but DOD has not pulled the trigger yet. We will do what we can to mitigate some of those impacts with the limited transfer authority we get; however, we just don't have the money or transfer authority to mitigate them all," he wrote.

Welsh noted that Congress rescinded about $760 million in prior year investment funds and about $600 million in operations and management funding. That means the Air Force is now grappling with a multimillion dollar shortfall consisting of a $10 billion sequester reduction and a $1.8 billion overseas contingency operations shortfall, which has forced the service to cancel advanced training classes and requalification courses, he wrote.

In the coming months, the Air Force will continue to implement changes to counterbalance that shortfall, according to Welsh's memo.

"That reduction will still result in grounding some [Combat Air Force] squadrons as early as April -- [Mobility Air Force] impacts will kick-in later in the summer," Welsh wrote. "We will keep [Formal Training Unit] training on track until the funding runs out (late summer) but we had to cancel advanced training (IP courses, requalification courses) to do so."

Another problem for the Air Force is that Congress, in its fiscal year 2013 Defense Authorization Act, mandated the service retain more aircraft than it initially planned to fly in coming years. Maintaining those aircraft will cost the Air Force about $602 million, but lawmakers only provided the Air Force with $504 million, leaving the service with a $98 million shortfall, according to the Air Force's FY-13 implementation plan, Welsh wrote, adding that the Air Force was doing its best to mitigate that shortfall.

"We're pushing very hard to stretch every dollar and turn over every rock to buy as much mission capability back as possible," according to the memo.