Lt. Gen. Tom Sheridan, USAF’s program executive officer for space, said he “sees no down side” to the headquarters-level realignment of space functions announced last week by Air Force Secretary Michael Donley. “I think it’s a good plan,” said Sheridan during a conference call with reporters Wednesday (see above). As one of the changes, the Air Force’s acquisition executive now has oversight of USAF’s space programs in addition to its non-space projects. Sheridan greeted that move, saying, the space acquisition efforts “will get closer to the rest of the Air Force acquisition.” He also welcomed Richard McKinney‘s reassignment as USAF’s deputy undersecretary for space programs as a “positive step,” citing McKinney’s solid background in space-related issues. “I think you are going to see more people at the Pentagon who are up to speed and willing to work space issues in the future,” said Sheridan. (Donley memo on realignment)
The Defense Innovation Unit is gearing up for the first flight of its commercially developed hypersonic testbed as soon as the end of February—part of a larger project to quickly increase the cadence of the Pentagon’s hypersonic flight testing and field advanced, high-speed systems and components at scale.
