Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) thinks his state may not lose an Air Force Research Lab facility at Mesa, Ariz., that BRAC 2005 directed should move to AFRL headquarters at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Flake told the Arizona Republic that the action on AFRL’s Warfighter Readiness Research Division at Mesa could be “postponed indefinitely.” Of course, that is not supposed to happen once the President and Congress sign off on the independent BRAC commission recommendations. And, Wright-Patt is investing big money to absorb new functions.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
