The Air Force has hired former USA Today reporter Dave Moniz as part of a revamping of its internal and external communications function. Moniz is serving as a senior public affairs adviser, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Air Force subsumed public affairs, readers may recall, under a new communications department, being led by Brig. Gen. Erwin F. Lessel III, a command pilot who was last heading plans and programs for Air Force Materiel Command, but who also served on the PR front lines as multi-national force spokesman in Iraq.
The Air Force plans to add external weapons pylons on the B-1B bomber, both to increase the number of aircraft that can test hypersonic missiles and expand the Lancer’s loadout as USAF transitions to the B-21 bomber.