In Fiscal 2013, for the first time, the Air Force will centrally manage its funds for facility and infrastructure restoration and modernization, said Terry Yonkers, USAF’s assistant secretary for installations, environment, and logistics. This will enable the service “to prioritize new requirements across the enterprise, while improving our ability to forecast where sustainment dollars should be invested to minimize risk in infrastructure maintenance and emergency repairs,” he told the House Appropriations Committee’s military construction panel last week when discussing the service’s $3.9 billion budget request in Fiscal 2013 for military construction, military family housing, and facilities. The Air Force is adopting this asset-management approach from industry best practices, which have yielded industry “double-digit savings,” said Yonkers. He added, “We expect to achieve similar results and are confident that by centralizing our management, we can sustain our air bases on the dollars we have requested in this budget.” (Yonkers’ written testimony)
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
