USAF Lacks “Achievable Plan” for Prepositioning Materiel in Europe, IG Says

The Air Force failed to create an “achievable plan” to preposition base supplies and materiel in the European theater and it lacks a single program manager to oversee efforts from multiple organizations, both of which are causing delays, according to a Dec. 27 Defense Department Inspector General report. Read the full story by Amy McCullough.

USAF Gathers Experts to Help it Tackle Physiological Episodes

USAF’s Physiological Episodes Action Team held a Dec. 18 “hackathon” in northern Virginia to refresh its game plan for reducing the service-wide occurrence of the mid-air health emergencies, according to a USAF release. During the full-day mind-meld, experts from the fields of data science, engineering, human physiology, and defense—plus “pilots, maintenance leaders, acquisition professionals,” and academia and industry representatives—tackled subjects central to addressing these incidences “from across the Air Force,” the release said. Read the full story by Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory.

OTS Merges Total Force and Commissioned Officer Training

Total Force Officer Training and Commissioned Officer Training will disappear from USAF’s Officer Training School by year’s end, and will be replaced instead with a new eight-week course that merges the programs for line and non-line officers. The move, which creates an “off-ramp for a limited number of non-line specialties,” looks to boost “the quantity and quality of” the leaders the institution graduates, according to a USAF release. Read the full story by Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory.

Exercise Aims to Strengthen Partnership With India

Seven months after US Pacific Command changed its name to Indo-Pacific Command, about 200 USAF airmen traveled to India for a bilateral exercise that participants called “extremely unique.” The fourth iteration of Cope India came nine years after the last; the exercise was previously held in 2004, 2005, and 2009. Read the full story by Jennifer Hlad.

RADAR SWEEP

‘Not too good’: Trump rips Mattis’s performance as the Pentagon seeks stability

President Trump criticized former defense secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday, as acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan stepped into his new job and the military tried to make sense of the president’s plans for the war in Syria and Afghanistan. The Washington Post

Trump Gives New Pentagon Chief a Taste of His World View

On his first working day in charge of the Pentagon, Pat Shanahan got a taste of President Donald Trump’s scattershot way of looking at the world. Associated Press

Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Sees Peace Opportunity in 2019

The top U.S general in Afghanistan told NATO troops on Tuesday to prepare themselves to deal with “positive processes or negative consequences” as peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban to end a 17-year war gain momentum. Reuters

How Women Took Over the Military Industrial Complex

From the executive leadership of top weapons-makers, to the senior government officials designing and purchasing the nation’s military arsenal, the United States’ national defense hierarchy is, for the first time, largely run by women. Politico

DOD CIO Gets Beefed-Up Authorities, Responsibilities Starting Tuesday

The Pentagon’s chief information officer woke up Tuesday morning with a good deal more power and influence than he had the day before. Federal News Network

Raytheon Gets $434 Million Contract to Modify AIM-9X Sidewinder Missiles

The contract covers 766 AIM-9X Block II and Block II Plus missiles, known as Sidewinders, as well as guidance units, optical target containers and training missiles. UPI