USAF: ISR Plan Is Contractor Opportunity
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Amy Butler
A senior U.S. Air Force official says the service is "trying to level" the field of contractors competing for funding for various intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) contracts through a new approach to forming requirements and resourcing decisions.
This effort is part of the service's new ISR Flight Plan, which was unveiled to reporters July 6 at the Pentagon. Air Force officials say they've been transforming the cultural, organizational and programmatic approaches to ISR in the air service since late 2005. The process is long, however. The service has come under fire from Defense Secretary Robert Gates for lackluster support delivering ISR collection capabilities to soldiers in Iraq.
Included in the flight plan is a new process for collating and prioritizing requirements, which are then fed into programs in the Air Force. Part of this process involves contractors providing ideas and company funded development projects into a database maintained by the Air Force, says Brig. Gen. VeraLinn "Dash" Jamieson, director of strategy, integration and doctrine for the Air Force deputy chief of staff for ISR.
"If you want to play in this game, you want to be in the Air Force ISR Flight Plan," says Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for ISR.
The plan is designed to take requirements directly from the combatant commanders and feed into a resourcing system at the Pentagon to avoid bureaucratic misunderstandings or holdups.
Global Hawk photo credit: Northrop Grumman
