Air Force secretary seeks more innovation
Newly-installed Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson says the branch must research and innovate faster in her first official public remarks.
New Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has called for more funding toward research-and-development efforts and cautioned against reliance on readiness and modernization, our sister publication FCW reported.
Current and fiscal year 2018 budgets signal a greater workforce size and number of aircraft with the Budget Control Act still in place that caps defense budgets, Wilson told an Air Force Association event in Washington Monday.
The current budget in place increases funds for research, development, test and evaluation, Wilson said. This is key as adversaries are "innovating faster than we are," according to Wilson.
"The actual R&D end is pretty flat and has been for several years," she said. "One of the things that we do kind of foreshadow in this budget is a desire to increase basic applied research."
Her remarks were her first public statements since her Senate confirmation in May. Wilson is the only confirmed service branch secretary in the Trump administration so far.
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