Air force seeking greater balance between active, reserve components.

• Author: Insinna, Valerie

The politically damaging public battles between the Air Force and its reserve components over funding and personnel seem to have subsided after a wave of budget compromises, integration initiatives and a report to Congress.

Even though the dust has settled, it remains to be seen whether the service's leaders are comfortable handing over more responsibility to the Reserve and Air National Guard.

The Air Force's efforts show that it is interested in doing more than paying lip service to the reserve components, said Russell Rumbaugh, director of the Stimson Center's budgeting for foreign affairs and defense program. "But it's one thing to say it, it's another thing to do it. The actual doing it requires addressing that basic political balance."

Tensions exploded when the Air Force's proposed fiscal year 2013 budget made huge reductions to the Air National Guard, while the active component took only 17 percent of cuts to the force. The service originally proposed slashing end strength by 5,100 for the Guard, 3,900 for active duty and 900 for Reserve. At the end of 2012, Congress accepted a compromise that cut only 1,400 Guardsmen.

In the wake of that decision, Congress and the Air Force each formed initiatives to study how the service should restructure to better fit the current financial situation and future mission requirements.

Congress established the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force, which put forward its 42 recommendations earlier this year. Most of its suggestions center around redirecting more missions and resources to the Reserve and Guard, but the commission has no authority to execute its plan.

The service created the Total Force Task Force to do its own analysis. The task force, led by two-star generals from each component, made recommendations to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh last year. Welsh then organized a new office called the Total Force Continuum to put those proposals into action.

The service's top leaders were still reeling for some time after the 2012 dispute.

"We are migrating towards a better place, obviously, than we were after the [2013 budget] submission," Lt. Gen. James Jackson, head of Air Force Reserve Command, said in September 2013. "We do have some tough choices to make, and we'll continue to make those."

By July of this year, Jackson's comments focused on the need to protect all of the force from further cuts, "We need to stop shrinking. When I say 'we,' I'm talking total Air Force," he said in a speech to the Air...