Air Force 
Secretary Michael Donley has designated the USAF undersecretary position—currently occupied by Erin Conaton—as “the senior Air Force official for space matters” at the headquarters level. This includes being the focal point for planning, policy, strategy, international relations, space interagency relations, and interfacing with the Office of the Secretary of Defense on space matters, Donley wrote in a memo issued Thursday. There is one exception: space acquisition oversight shifts from the undersecretary’s office to the purview of USAF’s assistant secretary for acquisition, thereby consolidating all service acquisition functions—space and non-space—under one office, according to the memo. These changes are among the senior-level realignments that Donley has ordered following a review of USAF’s headquarters space functions (see below). Conaton, in her post since March, is already playing the leading role in USAF’s energy matters. (DOD release) (Donley memo) (Space management review)
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
