Air Force deployments fall, but still lean heavily on RPA, ISR, refueling

The Air Force is still relying on tens of thousands of airmen to carry out its mission overseas — but the type of airmen being deployed is changing greatly.

The number of airmen deployed last year has dropped from fiscal 2013, according to statistics provided by the Air Force Personnel Center.

However, the types of airmen being tapped most often to serve overseas are quite different. In 2013, airmen in career fields such as explosive ordnance disposal, Tactical Air Control Party and air liaison officers were at the top of the list of the busiest airmen.

But times have changed. In fiscal 2015, enlisted airmen such as airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operators, in-flight refuelers and remotely-piloted aircraft maintainers were among the most heavily-deployed, according to AFPC statistics. And on the officer side, bomber, special operations and RPA pilots and special operations, bomber and rescue combat systems officers are now some of the most heavily-deployed.

That change in who is most frequently deployed is probably due to the changing nature of the conflicts the Air Force is engaging in, said Col. Darren Cole, chief of war planning and policy in an interview Monday. As the Air Force fights the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, it's relying heavily on manned and unmanned aircraft to collect intel on militants and then kill them. But that air-centric strategy requires far fewer ground troops — and the EOD techs and TACPs who often support Army and Marine Corps units — than something like Afghanistan.

AFPC statistics showed 51,553 enlisted airmen deployed in fiscal 2015 as part of a contingency operation or as part of an exercise. That's down from the 73,975 enlisted airmen deployed in 2013. And 13,102 officers deployed last year, down from 21,997 officers in 2013.

And the so-called dwell-deploy ratio has improved. In 2013, about 10 percent of airmen who deployed didn't meet the Air Force's goal of a 1:2 dwell-deploy ratio, meaning airmen spent less than one year at home after deploying for six months.

But now, all career fields have at least a 1:2 dwell-deploy ratio.