While the Air Force plans to increase its staff from 317,000 in 2017 to some 324,000 in 2019, this is still not enough to ensure that all programs are operating at full capacity.
"We've been talking about adding new capability when we weren't being allowed to divest old capability. We've been talking about expanding space, cyber, [remotely piloted aircraft] capability and someone asked me, ‘Well, how many airmen would it take to be able to do all that?' and I said, ‘I don't know — 40,000 to 60,000 would be a guess," Welsh said.
"If we're not allowed to divest the airmen who are doing other things today for our Air Force to put against the F-35 fleet, you start with 30,000 more that are required. If we want to expand RPA wings, it's going to take 5,000 to 10,000 people to expand that mission area. If we want to take all the mission areas in the Air Force that are currently manned at 85 percent and plus them up to 100 percent, it's going to be more airmen," he explained.
Welsh's comments come in conjunction with heavy lobbying to increase the US military budget. Earlier this May, a group of US Navy commanders complained about the daily practice of stripping off-duty ships for spare parts in order to maintain active-duty ships. The USS Eisenhower carrier, deployed to the Middle East to fight Daesh, reportedly used spare parts "cannibalized" from other military vessels.
