The Senate confirmed William LaPlante to be the next assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition last week, according to a Feb. 18 Air Force release. LaPlante, who currently serves as the principal deputy to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, will fill the spot left vacant since Sue Payton left the position in April 2009. “I’ve spent over 28 years around systems technologies, acquisition programs; touching all aspects of those programs for all services,” he said during a Jan. 16 confirmation hearing. “This experience, along with my time on the Defense Science Board, offers first-hand impressions of defense acquisition.”
While the Air Force released scant details about the latest test of its AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon late last week, Secretary Frank Kendall told a Congressional panel it was “not a success”—and given ARRW’s checkered test history overall, Kendall indicated the service may shift focus to its other hypersonic program, the…