US Transportation Command is changing how it moves personnel, supplies, and weapons around the world, per the 2003 mandate handed down by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who designated TRANSCOM the department’s “distribution process owner.” According to TRANSCOM’s top enlisted man, Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant Kenneth McQuiston, who spoke to a group of senior enlisted personnel at the Pentagon last week, the command is not trying to take control of supply management but does want to maintain visibility over where items are within the chain. “Wal-Mart’s shelves are never empty,” McQuiston said, noting that command officials recently met with the company’s executives, who, he said, “know where all their stuff is at all times.”
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
