We missed the hint earlier this month of a significant change within the Air Staff. It was the announcement that the Air Force has tapped Lt. Gen. David Deptula for assignment as the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence. (Deptula currently serves as vice commander of Pacific Air Forces and commander of the Kenney Warfighting Center.) As of March, intelligence had been part of the job of the director of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance within the DCS for air and space operations.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…