As Air Force Materiel Command consolidates its acquisition, sustainment, testing, and technology functions from 12 locations to five, it will reduce 1,051 acquisition positions at the management level, said AFMC chief Gen. Donald Hoffman Thursday at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. The consolidation, announced last November, doesn’t run afoul of any potential new BRAC round, said Hoffman. “We’ve postured ourselves for efficiency, whether there’s a BRAC or not,” he asserted. There’s “no legislation that says, ‘don’t do it,'” but there is the 2011 Budget Control Act that demands that the Air Force “spend less money,” he said. BRAC 2005 “is history,” said Hoffman, and doesn’t “codify the future.”
There is a new entrant in the highly competitive field of collaborative combat aircraft—semi-autonomous drones meant to fly alongside manned combat aircraft. Northrop Grumman unveiled its new Project Talon aircraft to a small group of reporters at the facilities of its subsidiary Scaled Composites.
