Probably not. It takes them months to do the FTM and back when they did it, they probably thought it would be 27 days, but along the line the higher ups decided 23 days is fine, thus why now they are releasing the dates via the units.
Honestly, if you look through the years the amount of days and the # of Maxs keep gets getting tweaked along the way. 5 years ago and it was 28 days and 6 Maxs, but since than they have gone up and done regarding both between 23 to 27 days, 5 and 6 Maxs.
~ Just like selection rates, and rated/non-rated paperwork intentions.
Part of me believes that sequestration is still impacting HQ AFROTC. Shaving off 4 days of training for @2000 cadets while not risking the training outcome saves them money. Yes, it maybe pennies from the big picture aspect, but that is where they are at now from a cost savings perspective.
~ If you look at it that way than you will see what what I mean
~~ Type 2 has not increases since 2008. It is still capped at 18K, but college tuition have increased on avg by 7-10% per year since 2008. I.E. VT for 2015-16 OOS is 29K. 2012-13 it was 23.5K. 3 short academic years and it went up 25%
~~ Stipend has not moved at all either. Actually the stipend has gone down. In 2012 AS400s received 550 a month. DS as a 100 in 2008 got $250 per month. 350 for 200, 450 for 300 and 550 for 400.
~~ Book allowance has also remained the same. Can't tell me books are cheaper now, and even back in 2012, Chegg existed.
My point is they have shaved every penny, but the DoD still needs to shave money and they are not going to take it from the AD world or the SAs before they take from the ROTC world. AF especially because if you look at their newest media releases, they are increasing the numbers of officers commissioned via OCS/OTS while the SA/ROTC numbers will remain the same. To me that says they have a number they need for manpower, and to save money they are going to use that third rail...OCS/OTS.
Just my opinion. sorry for taking this off track, but hoping posters see it now from a different view of why they may utilize the 23 instead of 27 day option for SFT.