Budget cuts leave Air Force pilots twisting in the wind Now, the squadron's two dozen F-15s are parked underneath canopies on the flight line, with red covers over their gaping afterburners to keep out birds and critters. Glum pilots find themselves with lots of time for softball and community projects. And the Air Force has one less fighter squadron available to fight. "I have zero readiness and zero combat capability right now," said Lt. Col. Jim Howard, the 41-year-old squadron commander. It's extremely frustrating, knowing the unit that I had two months ago compared to where we are now. It's a story repeated at bases across the country and the world, where the Air Force has stood down 13 combat squadrons, nearly one-third of its active-duty fighter and bomber squadrons, to meet a $600 million reduction in money available for flying and readiness dictated by the mandatory cuts. The Air Force has retained enough combat power to meet current requirements around the globe, including in Afghanistan and any immediate crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Beyond that, senior officers said, it's a question mark. Air Force officials said the "tiered readiness" they have adopted for active-duty air combat units, which they describe as unprecedented, carries the risk that there may not be sufficient combat air power to respond immediately to contingencies. "We are funding the known and accepting risk in the unknown," Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the Air Force chief of staff, said Friday. Standing down the 336th through the end of the fiscal year will save about $50 million, according to the Air Force. But the savings will come with their own costs, officers said. Impact on readiness For every month that a squadron such as the Rocketeers sits, the Air Force estimates that it will take an equal number of months to retrain the pilots. If the squadron does not fly for six months, it will take an additional half-year before it can be deployed. On top of that are worries about the effect of a lengthy stand-down on the pilots and aircraft. "It's kind of like changing an ingredient in Coke and wondering how it will change the taste," said Maj. Gen. Charles W. Lyon, director of air and space operations at the Air Combat Command. The Rocketeers received word April 8 that flying would cease the next day, probably for the remainder of the fiscal year. "That was a real shock," Howard said. We didn't think it would go that deep. An unusual quiet pervades the corridors of squadron headquarters, which are lined with photographs showing its unusual lineage, dating to American volunteers who flew Spitfires with the Royal Air Force during World War II and continuing through moments of glory during the wars in Korea, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq.