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Congress and the Defense Department might benefit from making the Congressionally mandated 30-year aircraft procurement plan less frequent, less far reaching in scope, and better timed, said Vice Adm. Stephen Stanley, principal deputy director of the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, Wednesday. Stanley, whose office plays a big role in preparing the APP, told members of the House Armed Services Committee’s oversight panel that he favors the plan coming out only once every four years vice annually, being tied more closely to the Quadrennial Defense Review, and only looking 20 years into the future. “It’s not clear to me that the last 10 years do either you or me much good,” he noted. He also sees merit in having the APP timed to appear one year after the QDR, so that a new Administration has had time to formulate its national security strategy. Stanley said these same suggestions apply to the Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan, which, as of this year, already is a quadrennial document. (2011 Aircraft Procurement Plan)
The Air Force will promote 11.07 percent of eligible master sergeants to senior master sergeant this year, a decline from last cycle that snaps a four-year streak of increases. Out of a pool of 13,315 eligible individuals, 1,474 new E-8s were selected.