Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Friday current operations are eating away at the money available for future investment. Speaking at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Donley said the ratio of operations and maintenance spending compared to expenditures on research, development, test, and evaluation in Fiscal 2012 was 64 to 34, but in the Fiscal 2013 budget request, it’s 67:33. While that may not seem like a big shift, it represents a swing of about $3.5 billion, from $39.3 billion for RDT&E in Fiscal 2012 to $35.8 for that investment in next fiscal year’s request, according to Donley’s figures.
A new report on modernizing Air Force training and education suggests borrowing a method from the civilian technology industry to help Airmen and Guardians build skills in key new areas like artificial intelligence: stackable certificates.