Defense Secretary Robert Gates has named the other members of the newly created Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management, which last week he said would be led by James Schlesinger. The members are: retired Air Force Gen. Michael Carns, retired Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, John Hamre, Franklin Miller, Jacques Gansler, J.D. Crouch, and Christopher Williams, currently on the Defense Policy Board. Gates has given the task force a short deadline to review the classified Donald Report and the various reviews conducted by the Air Force, Navy, and Defense Logistics Agency, making its first initial assessment, focused on the Air Force, within 60 days. The Air Force already has begun implementing some changes following two internal and one external review conducted after the mistaken transfer of nuclear-equipped cruise missiles from North Dakota to Louisiana.
In Part 2 of a series exploring the Software Acquisition Pathway that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently made mandatory, we look back at how the acquisition reform has its origins in problems with the F-35.