PACAF looks to reduce exercise participation to preserve ‘readiness’: Commander

WASHINGTON — US Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) is reevaluating its upcoming exercise schedule to help preserve “readiness” in the face of increased commitments around the globe, including the Middle East, according to the four-star general overseeing the region. 

“We’re looking at … how we manage [readiness] against … all the other things that are going on around the world,” PACAF Commander Gen. Kevin Schneider said Monday during a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event.

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of identifying, amongst commanders, where we’re going to take risk or how we manage the risks as we prioritize … [efforts] in the CENTCOM [Central Command] region right now, and what are those things that you know we are able to absorb as commanders elsewhere in the Air Force enterprise,” he added. 

Part of the intersection between risk management and readiness now includes taking a “hard look” at the sheer number of regional exercises airmen participate in, said Schneider. On average, the four-star general said he is issuing task orders for roughly 45 exercises inside PACAF each year. Those exercises include ones like Valiant Shield with participants like Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand, to Rim of the Pacific with dozens of nations. 

“That’s a lot,” Schneider said. “They’re all valuable. They all have benefits, but we’re taking a look at … what are the ones that are readiness gainers? What are the ones that are maybe not high on that list of building readiness for our airmen? And then, making some decisions to go, ‘We’re going to continue to do these. We’re not going to do these, or we’ll do these in reduced volume.’”

The goal, he added, is to make sure PACAF is “preserving” readiness within its formations in case they are needed by Pacific Command or for operations in other parts of the world.

The four-star general’s comments came just shy of the five month mark since the US and Israel launched a series of attacks on Iran. That conflict has experienced numerous fits and starts in the intervening months, with widespread reports about US officials concerned with dwindling weapon stockpiles. 

So far, the White House has requested $67.1 billion in supplemental funding it says will help pay for the Iran conflict as part of a larger $90 billion supplemental request. And just last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Senate appropriators that he expects “certain aspects” of the Iran war to cost $37.5 billion through the end of September.

But so far, lawmakers have not approved those funds and the Pentagon has requested congressional approval to reroute roughly $4.3 billion from fiscal 2026 coffers to pay for “higher priority items,” including increased personnel and operational costs around the globe.

Back in May, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told House appropriators he expected that his service would run into some financial limitations for things like training and exercises starting this summer due, in part, to the current pace of operations.

“I will have to start making decisions to change training, operations, certification, events, those type of things we do to generate our force in the July timeframe,” Caudle said at the time.