The Air Force has applied its new AFSO21—for Air Force Smart Operations 21—to uniform development. The result: A team has identified a way to eliminate the “redundancies and gaps” that led to such things as the five-year development cycle to produce the service’s new utility uniform. The uncertainty evident in the uniform process, says Col. Paul Price, a member of the Air Force Uniform Board, led to increases in cost and time. One change the service already has put into effect is creation of a Uniform Enterprise Working Group to keep development on track and watch the money trail. The service has relegated the uniform board to policy issues. And, says Price, more changes are coming next year.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.