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Rumors untrue: AEF construct not changing to 6-month deployments

  • Published
  • By Capt. Christopher Moore
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  "Is the Air Force going to 6-month deployments?" 

That's the question on the minds of many Airmen as the service readies itself for the start of the seventh air and space expeditionary force cycle in January 

However, the AEF standard rotation policy remains 4 months, according to the Directorate of AEF Operations. 

The Air Force's policy under the AEF construct is 4 months and approximately 55 percent of Airmen who deploy in any AEF pair are on a 4-month tour. 

The secretary of defense authorized the services to determine their own rotation policy for Global War on Terrorism operations. While the Air Force standard is 4 months, many Airmen are deploying for 6 or 12 months. 

There are two main reasons for an extended tour length. The primary reason is that a combatant commander's minimum tour requirement is greater than the services 4-month rotation policy. Generally these are tasks or missions of a sensitive nature to provide continuity, establish rapport with the host nationals and/or to coincide with a sister service tour if the requirement is in direct support, e.g., weathermen, training teams, contracting, reconstruction teams, etc. 

The second is either Air Force policy for specific billets requiring continuity (air expeditionary wing command billets, certain air operations center positions, for example) or the pool of available, deployable Airmen in an AEF pair (as presented by AEF posturing, coding and readiness indicators) is too small to meet the combatant commander's requirement. Security forces, explosive ordinance disposal, civil engineering, contracting and public affairs Airmen, for example, can deploy longer than 4 months as long as it doesn't present a significant risk to the missions of other combatant commanders.