President
Obama appointed Jamie Morin to serve as acting undersecretary of the Air Force. Morin temporarily fills the leadership void now that Erin Conaton, Air Force undersecretary since March 2010, has moved on to become the Pentagon’s new undersecretary for personnel and readiness issues. “I appreciate the opportunity to make a difference for the Air Force and our nation while also digging more deeply into critical issues like space programs, energy efficiency, [Department of Defense] management reform, and the Air Force budget,” said Morin in a July 5 release. The appointment came on July 3. Morin has served as the Air Force’s assistant secretary for financial management and comptroller since 2009. He will serve in the acting position until the President nominates a new undersecretary and the Senate confirms the nomination, according to the release. Marilyn Thomas, the principal deputy in the Air Force Secretariat’s budget office, will assume many of Morin’s assistant secretary duties during this time, states the release.
New approaches to testing Space Force equipment are speeding up delivery to operators, but the service needs more testers and perhaps its own space-focused test center, officials said April 1. Those are key pieces of the fledgling force’s testing methods and future moves that will keep new technology flowing into…