The Air Force aircraft fleet is getting old, a position repeated time and again by top USAF leaders. Yesterday at a Capitol Hill seminar, the service’s top acquisition official, Sue Payton, repeated the refrain, adding a slightly new twist. She said, the tankers “should be flying around with an AARP card,” and added that by the time the last tankers are retired, “there will be a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ sign on the engine.” Payton emphasized the need to push modernization across the service’s weapon systems, but she also said acquisition officials were well aware that they must beware of technology pitfalls and abide by what Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley has termed the “A model approach.” Payton asserted that it is crucial for the service to avoid situations “where we cannot start a program because a technology isn’t mature.”
A single-pallet-sized tactical operations center is slated to begin shipping to 70 Air Force units by the end of the year following a recent announcement by the company that made it and the Air Force entity responsible for its development.
