Officials increase Air Force defense budget to grow manpower in maintenance area
NewsFebruary 05, 2016
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. At the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Defense Secretary Carter spoke to service members on the fiscal year 2017 defense budget and the impact on the Air Force. Below are excerpts of his comments.
"The key is readiness; that's the key to the Air Force today and tomorrow, and it happens here," Carter says. "What I'm asking the Air Force to do ... is maintain a very high level of readiness, and that you get from Nellis."
"This is the only test range where you can bring it all together -- not only all the kinds of aircraft you see on the ramps out there, but the satellites you don't see and the cyber (activity) you don't see. In today's world, all of that is brought together only here at Nellis, so it's an enormously important installation. That is reflected in our budget, where we're adding $1 billion more for training of this kind over the next five years. That's going to support no fewer than 34 major exercises."
"We are adding funds to the Air Force budget to grow manpower in the maintenance area because we need more maintainers, given the high-operations tempo, to keep our aircraft ready," Carter says. "We're doing all this at the same time that we are modernizing the Air Force, so you'll see in the future new aircraft here on the ramp.
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