Commander discusses FY12 budget at Senate hearings

Published May 13, 2011
By Col. Bob Thompson
Air Force Reserve Public Affairs

WASHINGTON -- The top leaders from Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force Reserve and Guard programs provided statements and answered questions regarding the proposed estimates for their fiscal year 2012 budgets.

Led by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations subcommittee on Defense listened as the Reserve Component leaders testified at Capitol Hill on May 11.

"In an increasingly limited fiscal environment, Reservists remain efficient and cost-effective solutions to our nation's challenges," said Lt. Gen. Charles E. Stenner Jr., chief of Air Force Reserve at the Pentagon and commander of Air Force Reserve Command at Robins AFB, Ga.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is the largest committee in the U.S. Senate. Its role is defined by the U.S. Constitution, which requires "appropriations made by law" prior to the expenditure of any money from the Federal treasury. The Defense subcommittee is responsible for reviewing the President's budget request, hearing testimony from government officials, and drafting the spending plans for the coming fiscal year.

General Stenner discussed how the FY12 President's Budget request would fund Air Force Reserve requirements of approximately $5 billion. It provides for the operation and training of 34 wings, funds 117,769 flying hours, maintains 344 aircraft, and provides for the readiness of 71,400 Reservists and 4,157 civilian employees.

The Air Force Reserve budget request is about 4 percent of the total Air Force budget, and includes $2.27 billion for operation and maintenance for air operations, service support and civilian pay; $1.7 billion for military personnel; and $34 million for military construction.

"We have sustained our operational capabilities for nearly twenty years - at a high operations tempo for the past ten," said General Stenner. "We accomplish this while continuing to provide a cost-effective and combat ready force available for strategic surge or on-going operations."

Air Force Reservists serve in every combat Area of Responsibility - including Afghanistan and Iraq - and provide operational capabilities around the globe today. Approximately 4,300 Air Force Reservists are activated and supporting ongoing missions today.

"The strategic nature of the Reserve Components historically made us vulnerable to reductions in resources and budgets," said General Stenner. "The traditional approach to rebalancing during a budget reduction has been to reduce Reserve Component force structure to preserve Active Component operational capabilities, or to reduce all components through some proportional or fair-share model to spread risk across the force."

However, the Air Force Reserve has introduced new methods that allow Air Force planners to better calculate reliable cost/capability tradeoff analysis. This allows future force rebalancing choices to be made based on measurable outcomes of cost, capability and risk rather than using arbitrary rules of thumb or notional ratios.

"Any approach should acknowledge the Reserve Components have become and will remain a responsive operational force," said the general. "Such a force necessarily allows the Services to respond quickly and efficiently to funding reductions without decreasing warfighting capability or incurring large Active Component recruiting and training costs."

To better accommodate the Air Force-wide integration effort, the Air Force Reserve is evaluating different mixes of Reserve, Guard and Active Component forces in any given mission set. The process for rebalancing the Total Force may lead to force decisions that support Reserve Component growth.

"We take pride in the fact that when our nation calls on the Air Force Reserve, we are trained and ready for the fight," said General Stenner. "As an operational force more than 70,000 strong, we are mission-ready and serving operationally throughout the world every day."

Video of the hearing is posted at: http://appropriations.senate.gov/webcasts.cfm?method=webcasts.view&id=d935e772-ed64-44e9-bc56-642d08c94ffc

General Stenner's written statement is posted at:
http://appropriations.senate.gov/ht-defense.cfm?method=hearings.view&id=83afec18-a90d-47cc-b489-1caedf4ecdc9