Undersecretary of the Air Force Lisa Disbrow will be “performing the duties of” the Secretary of the Air Force until a new Secretary is nominated and confirmed, but she will not carry the title “Acting Secretary,” Pentagon officials said Thursday. They could not explain the distinction between the two terms. Moreover former USAF Secretary Deborah Lee James will be “facilitating the transition” to a new Secretary, but it was unclear whether that means she will continue on at the Pentagon past Jan. 20. Neither Air Force public affairs nor Office of Secretary of Defense public affairs could provide an official comment.
DARPA Changing Directors Again in Third Recent Shuffle
Jan. 21, 2021
The Biden administration is reportedly tapping Stefanie Tompkins to run the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, spurring the third leadership change at the secretive Pentagon organization since January 2020. Defense One first reported Tompkins’s “pre-decisional” appointment to the post on Jan. 19. The White House did not respond to a…