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Air Force to scale back cuts in flying hours

Recent cuts to pilots’ flying hours have eroded their ability to drop live weapons, the Air Force’s top strategic planner said Sept. 25.

And that concern has led the Air Force to add money back into its budget to pay for more flight time.

“We have a huge investment in simulators ... so we’ve cut flying hours,” said Lt. Gen. Raymond E. Johns Jr., deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs. “Have we gone too far? Well, it turns out that over a period of time, we’ve taken away from our crews’ abilities to drop live weapons.”

Johns said the Air Force will add money to the 2008 and 2009 budgets in order to pay for more flying hours. But he did not elaborate on the plan, and further details were not immediately available.

Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley announced earlier this year that the Air Force would seek to save money by reducing flying hours by 7.5 percent instead of the 10 percent originally proposed. Air Force leaders have seemed uncomfortable with the cuts all along, and Johns gave voice to their concerns at the Air Force Association conference in Washington.

“Half of the game is having the confidence to use that weapon when you need to, and that means you need experience with it,” he said. “A simulator takes you so far, but you have to see that weapon come off the rail. ... We have to find the right balance in that.”