Even though the Air Force has emphasized diversity in recent years, the U.S. military's air branch remains largely white and male, USA Today reported.

Only 18 of its 280 generals belong to minority groups, and just two Hispanic officers hold that top rank. Thirteen African-American generals, meanwhile, make up just 4 percent of the service's general officer corps.

As a consequence, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James on Wednesday announced no fewer than nine initiatives to try to boost the careers of women and minorities in the branch, according to the Air Force Times.

The measures include, among other things, a revamped web-based mentor-matching tool; diversity and inclusion requirements for team leaders; additional guidance for promotion boards; an effort to increase the pool of female officer applicants; a relaxation of certain height requirements; and an increase to 12 months of the post-pregnancy deployment deferment.

The focus, James noted, had to be just as much on human resources as it is on technology.

"A fundamental question I ask is, Are we spending as much time and resources and energy thinking about the next generation of our people, the next generation of our airmen, as we are thinking about the next generation of aircraft?" the secretary asked.

The Air Force has traditionally drawn its top leaders from combat pilots, especially those who fly fighter jets, USA Today noted. The branch's chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh, is an F-16 and A-10 pilot; Gen. Philip Breedlove, Supreme Allied commander in Europe, flew F-16s, as well.

That approach, however, is comparable to what happens in the military's remaining branches, suggested Gen. Darren McDew, the four-star officer in charge of Air Force Air Mobility Command.

"We're not that much different than the Army in that the combat arms part of our Air Force has traditionally been where we have drawn our most senior leaders," said McDew, an African-American C-17 pilot. "It's because those combat arms have a natural link to the operational part that is the core of the service," he added.

Still, James told USA Today that the Air Force is committed to tackling its diversity gap.

"As a service we need to do better at achieving greater diversity of thought and experiences in leadership positions," the secretary insisted.