Reversing a split that caused a fair amount of grumbling over the summer, the Pentagon announced late Thursday that National Reconnaissance Office Director Donald Kerr has been appointed to a new Air Force post as the assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force for intelligence space technology. The appointment took effect Oct. 3. Kerr is the first person to be named NRO director who is not also the undersecretary of the Air Force. (DR, 09/22/05) Undersecretary Ronald Sega is also the DOD executive agent for space. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last month that all interested parties, including the Air Force, believe that splitting away the NRO job made better management sense, but that the Air Force and NRO should remain “closely connected.”
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.

