WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force has named five new acquisition portfolios and designated officials to lead them, while moving to fix what an Air Force spokesperson told Breaking Defense was a “complex and inefficient system” of authorities to better empower the portfolio leaders.
The five Air Force portfolios — groups of similar programs focused on a particular mission — will be led by a mix of military and civilian officials, the spokesperson said. The Space Force has also created two portfolios of its own but has not yet named their leaders.
Taken together, the changes represent the Department of the Air Force’s first push to implement wide-ranging reforms championed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Breaking Defense previously reported on the dramatic acquisition shakeup at the Army.
The new Air Force portfolios, and their leaders, are as follows:
- Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management (C3BM): Maj. Gen. Luke Cropsey
- Fighters and Advanced Aircraft: Col Timothy Helfrich
- Nuclear Command, Control and Communications (NC3): Scott Hardiman
- Propulsion: John Sneden
- Weapons: Brig. Gen. Bob Lyons
The Space Force established two portfolios of its own for Space Access and Space Based Sensing and Targeting, according to a press release the Air Force published Thursday. It’s not clear when their leaders, dubbed portfolio acquisition executives (PAEs), will be announced.
“This transformation is a generational opportunity for the Department of the Air Force,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in the 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.”
Data overload threatens decisionmakers as autonomy expands
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
‘Align Responsibility With Authority’
While it is a shakeup, continuity is reflected in many of these changes. For example, Cropsey, who was recently tapped to become the Air Force’s military deputy for acquisitions, was already serving as the head of C3BM efforts for the Air Force, while Sneden has helmed the service’s propulsion directorate for years. As a result, their remits are largely remaining intact.
But their redesignated roles as PAEs, a move away from the title of program executive officer, represents a concerted effort to delegate them more authority.
“Currently, PAEs, the leaders in charge of developing and buying new capabilities, are held responsible for project outcomes. However, they do not have direct control over all the essential functions — like staffing, contracting, and airworthiness — that are necessary to guarantee those outcomes,” the Air Force spokesperson said.
“This authority is instead spread across various centralized offices, creating a complex and inefficient system for the PAE to navigate. They have the accountability for success, but not the full authority to make key decisions quickly,” they continued. “To fix this, the Air Force is moving to delegate these enabling authorities from the central offices directly to the PAEs, or as close to the mission as possible. The goal is to align responsibility with authority, empowering program leaders to cut through bureaucracy and deliver capabilities to the warfighter much faster.”
The Air Force is taking a bottom-up approach to gather feedback on how best to align authorities, and a “formal process” is underway to determine what should be delegated, the Air Force spokesperson said.
“By redesignating our PEOs as PAEs, we are pushing authority and accountability to the mission level,” William Bailey, who is performing the duties of the Air Force’s acquisition executive, said in the service’s release. “We are telling our leaders, ‘You own this mission set.’ For the Airman on the flight line, this means getting the tools they need before they become obsolete. This move unlocks their expertise, cuts through bureaucracy, and ensures our acquisition enterprise is fully integrated with the warfighter’s needs at all times.”
Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, Air Force acting assistant secretary for space acquisition and integration, told reporters on Dec. 12 that the Space Force’s acquisition structure arguably already is organized into portfolios. He explained that while he envisions some “cleanup” to better consolidate certain missions under one shop, he does not believe a wholesale reorganization is needed.
For example, the service currently has a PEO shop for Assured Access to Space and another for Space Sensing.
“Acquisition is now a warfighting function. We cannot be locked into decade-long development cycles,” Purdy said in the Air Force announcement Thursday. “Our ‘commercial first’ approach allows us to harness the incredible innovation happening in the private sector, getting cutting-edge technology into the hands of our Guardians at the speed of a startup, not a bureaucracy. This is how we maintain our edge.”
Some discussions around the new portfolio approach have also centered on the ability for PAEs to shift funds between programs as they see fit. However, that kind of change will require approval from lawmakers.
More PAEs Coming
The new acquisition structure joins changes already underway, particularly the appointment of Gen. Dale White as a direct reporting portfolio manager (DRPM) for some of the Air Force’s biggest programs. Following his Senate confirmation in December, White now supervises the Sentinel and Minuteman III ICBMs, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, F-47 sixth-generation fighter and Air Force One replacement called VC-25B.
According to an Air Force spokesperson, PAEs will report directly to White for programs in their portfolios that are under his purview like F-47; otherwise, they will report to the service’s acquisition executive. White, who holds milestone decision authority for the efforts he is tasked with overseeing, essentially sits at the level of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, reporting directly to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg and then Hegseth.
The portfolios announced Thursday are just an initial “tranche,” which the Air Force spokesperson said will act as a pathfinder for programs that still have to shift to the PAE structure. Those future PAEs will come online as they are ready, which the spokesperson said should occur ahead of Hegseth’s two-year deadline outlined in his November memo [PDF] establishing portfolios.
“We will ensure that every one of our Portfolio Acquisition Executives, and the teams that support them, has the three things they need to succeed: the authority, the resources, and the talent to execute their mission,” Meink said in the release.