Retired Adm. Dennis Blair’s move to distance himself from F-22A subcontractor EDO, upon whose board he served, comes too late to stop key lawmakers from calling for a DOD inspector general investigation. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) are pressing for a review into whether Blair’s EDO position might have influenced the F-22 program analysis provided by the Institute for Defense Analyses, which Blair heads. Daggers flew over this issue at last week’s Senate panel hearing into the Air Force’s F-22 multiyear procurement proposal.
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.
