Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, head of USAF manpower and personnel, says Air Force efforts to recruit and keep scientists and engineers are ongoing. “We are always short of engineers and people of a scientific bent,” Brady told attendees at AFA’s Air & Space Conference last week, adding that the reason is because “the US is not producing enough of these people.” Brady said he knows one former USAF scientist, now teaching at a university, that has no Americans as grad students.
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.
