Air Combat Command, Air Mobility Command, and Air Force Special Operations Command need to do a better job integrating virtual training efforts, found Government Accountability Office auditors. Specifically, the Air Force should create an overarching organizational framework that accomplishes this task, states a new GAO report. The Air Force “has reorganized offices and undertaken various initiatives intended to enhance existing virtual training capabilities, but [it] has not designated an entity to integrate these efforts or developed an overarching strategy to define goals, align efforts, and establish investment priorities,” states the July 19 report’s executive summary. “As a result, major commands have developed their own investment plans and standards for acquiring and fielding virtual training systems, which are often not interoperable and require costly, time-consuming workarounds,” it states. The auditors also contend that the Air Force’s estimated savings of $1.7 billion through 2016—by reducing live flying hours and boosting virtual training—don’t factor the costs of virtual training.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
