USAF consolidates some acquisition program offices into mission-focused groups

The Air Force is sweeping some of the offices that oversee its acquisition programs into groups with similar missions, part of an effort that aligns with—but also predates—recent acquisition-reform guidance issued by the defense secretary.

On Thursday, service officials revealed the first five of the new groups and the "portfolio acquisition executives" who will run them:

• Command, control, communications, and battle management: Maj. Gen. Luke Cropsey
• Fighters and advanced aircraft: Col. Timothy Helfrich
• Nuclear command, control and communications: Scott Hardiman
• Propulsion: John Sneden
• Weapons: Brig. Gen. Robert Lyons III

Ostensibly, these new PAEs replace and supersede program executive officers who were focused on narrower efforts. But most of the uniformed and civilian PAEs were already running acquisition efforts focused on sets of related missions rather than individual programs.

The new roles were seen as a key part of Hegseth’s November speech and memo to overhaul the existing defense industrial base and encourage faster acquisitions. 

While some defense experts have praised the PAE model, one former defense official said the Air Force already had many of its portfolios more broadly focused on mission sets. 

“From the Air Force perspective, they were pretty well aligned with mission sets to begin with,” the former official told Defense One. “Good things are happening here, but for the Air Force it’s more of a continuation of work that’s been going on for some time.”

The Space Force will also have two PAEs to oversee acquisitions related to space access and space-based sensing and targeting missions, according to a department news release. An Air Force spokesperson did not respond with the names of the new space-related PAEs by publication time. 

"This transformation is a generational opportunity for the Department of the Air Force,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in the news release. "It enables us to holistically reform our enterprise—from requirements, to acquisition, to test—in order to support the rapid and efficient development of our warfighting capabilities in order to get the operators what they need when they need it.”

But many of the service’s marquee acquisition programs now have been taken over by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Weeks after Hegseth’s speech, the Pentagon took over  oversight of the Air Force’s biggest and costliest programs, sweeping them into a “Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Critical Major Weapons Systems.” Air Force Lt. Gen. Dale White was nominated to the role, which oversees programs such as the Sentinel and Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, the B-21 bomber, the F-47 fighter jet, and the VC-25B presidential aircraft.