President Bush on April 25 nominated Sue Payton, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts, to become the Air Force’s top acquisition official. The post has been vacant since the resignation of Marvin Sambur in January 2005. Payton has previous Pentagon experience, serving as acting director of defense research and engineering, and worked for defense contractors Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin. She has a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Illinois University and a master’s from the University of Southern California.
As the Air Force readied for its June 21-22 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the service was also putting its Agile Combat Employment strategy into action, dispersing combat aircraft and Airmen from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in preparation for a possible Iranian retaliatory attack. Some defense experts say…
