The Air Force Acquisition Process and the Expeditionary Aerospace Force Challenge

The successful implementation of the Expeditionary Aerospace Force EAF concept is dependent on the Air Force AF acquisition process. The new AF Doctrine Document AFDD 2, 28 September 1998 describes the concept of operations and the organization of the air expeditionary force structure. However, there is no specific direction delineating the responsibilities of the AF acquisition community for implementing this new concept. The current AF acquisition process was created to support a Cold War operational environment and is not optimally structured to acquire upgrades or maintain support to weapon systems employed by the EAF. The result is an inefficient acquisition process in the deployment and sustainment of these weapons systems, identified as key war winning operations in AFDD 2. The acquisition community needs to address the EAF environment throughout the acquisition process in order to eliminate or reduce these inefficiencies, ensuring EAF success on the battlefield. This paper is a preliminary analysis of a complex area and highlights some of the major shortcomings of the AF acquisition process supporting an EAF structure. The research covers five areas 1 an investigation of the uniqueness of the EAF environment and current concerns 2 a discussion on how the current AF acquisition process is ineffective at supporting the EAF concept 3 a review of how the Navy supports a similar expeditionary structure 4 recommendations on how the AF acquisition process should be adjusted to meet the EAF challenge and 5 conclusions.