During a question and answer session with airmen at Hill AFB, Utah, Aug. 22 (see above), Gen. Norton Schwartz, the service’s new Chief of Staff, expressed his opinion that the planned move of aircraft maintainers into flying units should not go forward. He said, in response to a question, that he believes the maintenance group should remain independent. Early last month, Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, halted action on an initiative that would have put aircraft maintenance units under operations groups, saying he wanted to ascertain the “appropriateness and timeliness” of the effort. Former Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley had driven the initiative, which he believed would organize Air Force flying units in the same way they go to war, but the plan essentially undid what his predecessor (now retired Gen. John Jumper) had done.
The $4.26 billion Small Business Innovation Research contracting program widely used by the Air Force went into hibernation as the government shut down Oct. 1, but unless lawmakers strike a deal on reforms, the program could reach an abrupt end.
