The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility.
Something to note, some AF ACT operations can be contracted out. This means that even the AF doesn’t have enough even for its own operations, and that number probably reflects the available number of ‘wartime’ operators available.
Also, the military operates under a huge umbrella of tasks, where a 1C1 wouldn’t ‘just be’ ACT - that would be your ‘wartime’ job (specifically when you first enter), and you are ever becoming more generalized to handle a broader scope of tasks and responsibilities. If every 1C1 were used, you’d lose a lot of managers, support, training and etc to put people who are 1C1 who may not have done ATC work in years. Think First Sergeants and the like, they could do it - but you’d lose someone who has the knowledge of all 1C operations and go back to just doing ATC. That’s a heavy ask.
Something to note, some AF ACT operations can be contracted out. This means that even the AF doesn’t have enough even for its own operations, and that number probably reflects the available number of ‘wartime’ operators available.
Also, the military operates under a huge umbrella of tasks, where a 1C1 wouldn’t ‘just be’ ACT - that would be your ‘wartime’ job (specifically when you first enter), and you are ever becoming more generalized to handle a broader scope of tasks and responsibilities. If every 1C1 were used, you’d lose a lot of managers, support, training and etc to put people who are 1C1 who may not have done ATC work in years. Think First Sergeants and the like, they could do it - but you’d lose someone who has the knowledge of all 1C operations and go back to just doing ATC. That’s a heavy ask.
So the outlook is even worse than you suggest.