The Air Force said Monday flight training would temporarily resume for numerous units after a three-month halt due to budget reductions from sequestration.
The return to flight was made possible by congressional approval of a $1.8 billion reprogramming request that transferred money from several programs to pay for near-term shortfalls in war funding.
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| Air Force Thunderbirds will temporarily return to the skies after a three-month halt due to sequestration. Photo: Air Force. |
The service said sequestration budget cuts cost it $10 billion in fiscal year 2013, forcing it to impose a near freeze on repairs to buildings, significant reductions in maintenance of aircraft and 11 days of civilian furloughs that began last week. The halt to flying reduced expenditures by $857 million for FY ’13, but restoring readiness will take major investments in 2014 and beyond, the Air Force said.
A spokeswoman with Air Combat Command said she couldn’t provide a list of units that would resume flights by press time.
The Air Force said yesterday its Thunderbird demonstration squadron would return to the skies, meaning a return to critical training and development for pilots and maintainers. But the service said the return to flight would only be temporary if Congress does not act to avoid another round of automatic cuts in time for FY ’14, which begins Oct. 1.
While flying operations will begin the long path to recovering readiness, the Air Force said many other areas of operation remain seriously degraded. The largest funding reductions came in areas like facilities maintenance, where many installations are addressing only emergency work orders. Similarly, the three Air Logistics Centers’ depots have seen their workload reduced by $700 million, meaning that aircraft and engines will not be overhauled on schedule.