The Air Force announced a new and improved communications department—one it believes will lead to better rapport with the American public. The service plans to install a two-star general to lead the communications directorate, which will subsume the office of public affairs. The communications deputy director—a one-star general—will serve as head of public affairs. USAF named Brig. Gen. Erwin F. Lessel III and Col. Michelle D. Johnson to fill the new positions. Lessel is currently the director of plans and programs at Air Force Materiel Command. Johnson is director of personnel at Air Mobility Command. Gen. Michael Moseley, USAF Chief of Staff, says the new organization will ensure PAOs “have an active role in all significant operational planning, decision, and assessment points.”
An April 16 explosion destroyed a building at Northrop Grumman’s Innovation Systems plant in Promontory, Utah, where the company makes solid rocket motors for the U.S. government and commercial rocket companies.