DAYTON — The Air Force is doing a top-to-bottom review of its work force to assess staffing, and a major operation at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base could be restructured, according to the Air Force’s top officer.

The review will help determine whether changes, such as job cuts or reassignments, are needed.

Results of the review are to be announced in early November, said Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon.

She declined to share details prior to the announcement.

The review comes as U.S. armed forces cope with about $450 billion — and possibly twice that — in budget cuts over the next decade.

Civilian employment within the Defense Department is under particular scrutiny, and among the operations being reviewed is the Air Force Materiel Command, which is headquartered at Wright-Patterson and employs more civilians than any other of the nine Air Force commands.

In mid-October, the Air Force’s chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, said: “We are considering a restructure of AFMC — our largest employer of civilians — to standardize processes, streamline decision-making and align missions for more effective operations. The new structure will focus on reducing overhead costs and redundant layers of management while largely protecting the command’s rank and file work force.”

Of the Air Force as a whole, Schwartz said: “We will need to reduce overhead and consolidate wherever possible to meet budget targets. We will have to make difficult choices.”

The AFMC includes eight bases across the nation. The command is responsible for developing, testing and sustaining key aircraft and weapons programs. Its work force as of Oct. 1 was 85,851, including 65,094 civilians.

At Wright-Patterson, the AFMC work force encompasses about 21,000 of the base’s total 27,000 employees. Roughly 10,300 of the local AFMC employees are civilians.

The Air Force has slowed the growth of civilian hiring. The service’s self-imposed 90-day hiring freeze expires this month. In September, it began offering incentives for early retirement or voluntary departures from the work force.

Those eligible for early retirement must be at least 50 years old with 20 years of service. The voluntary departure payout is equal to an employee’s severance pay entitlement, up to a maximum of $25,000, before taxes. Employees approved to participate in those programs would separate from the service by Dec. 31.

A bipartisan congressional committee will determine whether the Pentagon will face $450 billion in cuts or nearly double that amount during 10 years. The committee must identify approximately $1.2 trillion in total government spending cuts by late November. If not, the deeper across-the-board cuts will automatically be imposed starting in 2013. Those could be devastating for defense, Pentagon officials have said.

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