Acquisition Just Takes Too Long

The Air Force’s new Chief of Staff, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, believes the Air Force must get back to the good old days of weapon systems development when it took only six years to field the F-15 fighter, once the service established its requirement. He said, the timeline for the F/A-22 will run about 14 years. Moseley, who was speaking to reporters Monday at the Air Force Association’s Air & Space Conference and Technology Expo in Washington, D.C., acknowledged that the F-15 timeline will be tough to match, but said he plans to energize the new-weapon acquisition cycle as much as possible.