Disparate Pentagon business services will come under a centralized management system by the end of November. According to Government Executive magazine, acting Deputy Secretary Gordon England sent a memo to the services and defense agencies recently outlining the new one-stop shop—the Business Transformation Agency—that will comprise personnel and resources for the Defense Travel System, the Pentagon’s e-mail system, the Acquisition Spend Analysis Service, and the Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval program. It will be headed by either a senior executive service civilian or a two-star general.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.