The Air Force plans to place even more emphasis on its intelligence operations, placing functional management responsibility over intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance assets with its newly created three-star intel guru. Last year the service designated a new position, that of deputy chief of staff for intelligence, currently filled by Lt. Gen. David Deptula; this year, it will make that position the “single focal point” for all Air Force ISR capabilities, writes Gen. Michael Moseley in a new Chief of Staff “Vector.”
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
