~90% funded by the USG only to serve the States?
Quote Originally Posted by Entropy View Post
Just wanted to inject that the Air Guard has undergone a lot of significant changes as part of brac in the last few years. One of the biggest changes was a significant loss of ANG "HIC" capability through the loss of combat aircraft. To me this makes sense - an F-16 wing, for example, is of limited use to a governor.
I suggest the the sheer cost of todays fighters to replace those F-16s (And F-15s) plays a part. Pointing out that F-16s are of little use to a Governor is just sugar coating reality.
A big focus for the ANG now is DGS - the ground station exploitation from UAV's, U-2 and other aircraft.
I suspect that will accelerate. It should. Hopefully, they'll get a handle on the stress factor.
On the reserve side, the trend is toward "associate" units where reserve units are colocated and partially integrated with active duty units. The reserve is now, for all intents and purposes, an operational and not a strategic reserve.
As, IMO, the Army Reserve should be while the ARNG remains a strategic reserve. The mid-80s movement of all Cbt units away from the USAR was a bad deal for the nation.