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10th Air Force commander speaks with local Air Power Foundation

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Joshua Woods
  • 10th Air Force Public Affairs
Brig. Gen. William B. Binger, 10th Air Force commander, spoke to members of the Fort Worth Airpower Foundation at the Colonial Country Club Jan. 10.

This was the foundation's opportunity to meet the new commander and hear about the future of the 10th AF mission, along with the upcoming Numbered Air Force (NAF) restructuring, instituted by Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC).

The general's briefing outlined the headquarters' reorganization and reduction in staff.

"Our focus is going to change to concentrate on combat readiness, inspection readiness and situational awareness within our units," Binger said.

He explained that although the 10th AF staff will be reduced by 67 percent, his newly-formed staff will focus on readiness within subordinate units to make sure they can pass inspections and go to war.

Although, he said, the 10th AF staff will lose expertise in many of its functional areas, the NAF headquarters will rely on wing commanders and their experts for advice and inspection preparations.

The major command (MAJCOM) headquarters will provide support to the wings in functional areas that previously resided at the NAF and regional support group level. Tenth AF will advocate for units' readiness requirements and inspection preparation.

"The idea is to skip-echelon certain functional areas to AFRC for advice and expertise," the general said.

The reduction will remove personnel, intelligence, communications, chaplain, history, public affairs and medical directorates from 10th AF, along with the entire 610th Regional Support Group (RSG), also headquartered here.

This new NAF structure more closely aligns AFRC NAFs with the active-duty NAF structure.

"We want to streamline our operation," Binger said. "We don't want to duplicate efforts and we want to save the taxpayer money. It's our job to do things smart and efficient."

We need to mirror how the active-duty numbered air forces are structured, he said.

However, even with a manpower reduction, 10th AF will begin to gain leading-edge combat missions in space, intelligence, cyberspace and new weapon systems, according to Binger.

"Tenth AF owns all the combat forces and all the combat power that AFRC supplies to the combatant commanders," Binger said. "We are gathering more missions and more responsibility with a smaller staff to help keep my eye on what's going on."

The demand for Air Force Reservists on the frontlines has grown since 9/11. On any given day, approximately 5,000 Air Force Reservists are on active-duty in the United States, Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations around the globe.

"Every one of 10th AF's weapon systems are in theater, or are being used in theater, to support the war efforts," Binger said. "Although my staff is reducing in size, my focus is still on readiness and to be the airpower advocate for the Air Force Reserve."