As Air Force Materiel Command consolidates its acquisition, sustainment, testing, and technology functions from 12 locations to five, it will reduce 1,051 acquisition positions at the management level, said AFMC chief Gen. Donald Hoffman Thursday at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. The consolidation, announced last November, doesn’t run afoul of any potential new BRAC round, said Hoffman. “We’ve postured ourselves for efficiency, whether there’s a BRAC or not,” he asserted. There’s “no legislation that says, ‘don’t do it,'” but there is the 2011 Budget Control Act that demands that the Air Force “spend less money,” he said. BRAC 2005 “is history,” said Hoffman, and doesn’t “codify the future.”
Boeing’s receipt of the 10th lot contract award for the KC-46 Pegasus this week leaves just three lots left to complete the Air Force’s buy of the tanker, although a further buy of 75 additional aircraft as a “bridge” to the Next-Generation Aerial-refueling System (NGAS) seems increasingly likely.