air force business operations plan

Air Force sharpens competitive edge with roadmap to reform

• Published March 4, 2019
• Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

Featured News

• Increasing pilot retention through pay, bonuses, and giving them regular input on assignments.
• Creating a realistic integrated training environment aimed at letting forces train in operationally relevant ways.
• Implementing innovative sustainment measures, such as conditions-based maintenance.
• Maturing the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability—the future force design team developing the Air Force We Need study.
• Improving foreign military sales by reducing the time between a letter of request, letter of offer, and acceptance.
• Reducing redundancy and duplication in information technology by refining governance structures and optimizing architecture.

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DoD Releases the Strategic Management Plan for Fiscal Years 2022 – 2026

Today the Department of Defense made public the Fiscal Years 2022 – 2026 Strategic Management Plan, as required by the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act of 2010. The SMP articulates the Secretary of Defense’s strategic priorities, consistent with the National Defense Strategy, with an emphasis on priorities focused on building enduring advantages. 

In her introduction to the SMP, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks states: “This Plan establishes accountability to measure our progress in realizing our National Defense Strategy. It also demonstrates to the President, Congress and most importantly the American people, the Department’s commitment to transparency.”  The SMP provides a management framework for describing general and long-term goals, actions the department will take to realize those goals, and how DOD will address challenges and risks that may hinder achieving results. It also includes detailed performance goals and measures to ensure SMP implementation in the near term in the Annual Performance Plan for fiscal 2023 and the consolidation of prior year performance results across all DOD components in the Annual Performance Report for fiscal 2021. 

The SMP strategic goals and objectives, together with the performance goals and measures, showcase how the department intends to achieve its goals and priorities and succeed through teamwork with our allies and partners. The Fiscal Years 2022 – 2026 SMP focuses on four strategic goals: 

1.    Making the Right Technology Investments and Transforming the Future Force 2.    Strengthen Resilience and Adaptability of Our Defense Ecosystem  3.    Taking Care of Our People and Cultivating the Workforce We Need  4.    Addressing Institutional Management Priorities

The DOD Strategic Management Plan for Fiscal Years 2022-2026 is available here .

You can see the Office of Management and Budget performance page, where the DOD plan and all other federal agencies’ plans are posted, here .

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Air Force Releases First Business Operations Plan

The U.S. Air Force released a two-year plan to improve the service branch’s business practices and internal operations, the branch said Monday .

The first business operations plan will cover fiscal years 2019 through 2021 and provide a framework for synchronizing functions and organizational activities while also establishing lines of accountability. Objectives to be addressed include improving aviator retention, increasing family support programs, fostering data access efforts and launching conditions-based aircraft maintenance initiatives.

“Sharpening the Air Force’s competitive edge means building a more lethal, ready force for the high-end fight,” said Air Force Undersecretary Matthew Donovan.

The undersecretary will supervise the plan’s progress and provide updates biannually as the service’s chief management officer. Leaders of business operations will provide a quarterly report to the Air Force Productivity Council with details on the plan’s implementation.

The service seeks to align its business strategy with the National Defense Strategy as well as focus areas such as improving Air Force readiness and lethality, establishing alliances and relationships and reforming business procedures to address performance and cost issues.

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U.S. Government Accountability Office

Air Force: Enhanced Enterprise Risk Management and Internal Control Assessments Could Improve Accountability over Mission-Critical Assets

The Air Force identified more than half of its $398 billion in assets (i.e., aircraft, weapons, vehicles, buildings) as mission-critical in fiscal year 2019. But, for decades, the service has not been accurately tracking and reporting financial information about its mission-critical assets. Without reliable information on this, the Air Force can’t support informed decisions about the condition, cost, or reliability of its assets, or about the need to request more resources.

Our 12 recommendations could help the Air Force strengthen its policies and procedures for overseeing and reporting on its mission-critical assets.

Aerial view of the Pentagon

What GAO Found

The Air Force's efforts to implement Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) are in the early stages, and accordingly, it has not fully incorporated ERM into its management practices as outlined in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-123. As a result, the Air Force is not fully managing its challenges and opportunities from an enterprise-wide view. Until it fully incorporates ERM—planned for some time after 2023—the Air Force will continue to leverage its current governance and reporting structures as well as its existing internal control reviews.

The Air Force has not designed a comprehensive process for assessing internal control, including processes related to mission-critical assets. GAO found that existing policies and procedures that Air Force staff follow to perform internal control assessments do not accurately capture the requirements of OMB Circular No. A-123. For example, the Air Force does not require (1) an assessment of each internal control element; (2) test plans that specify the nature, scope, and timing of procedures to conduct; and (3) validation that the results of internal control tests are sufficiently clear and complete to explain how units tested control procedures, what results they achieved, and how they derived conclusions from those results. Also, Air Force guidance and training was not adequate for conducting internal control assessments.

In addition, GAO found that the Air Force did not design its assessment of internal control to evaluate all key areas that are critical to meeting its mission objectives as part of its annual Statement of Assurance process.

Furthermore, GAO found that procedures the Air Force used to review mission-critical assets did not (1) evaluate whether the control design would serve to achieve objectives or address risks; (2) test operating effectiveness after first determining if controls were adequately designed; (3) use process cycle memorandums that accurately reflected the current business process; and (4) evaluate controls it put in place to achieve operational, internal reporting, and compliance objectives. GAO also found that the results of reviews of mission-critical assets are not formally considered in the Air Force's assessment of internal control.

Without performing internal control reviews in accordance with requirements, the Air Force increases the risk that its assessment of internal control and related Statement of Assurance may not appropriately represent the effectiveness of internal control, particularly over processes related to its mission-critical assets.

Why GAO Did This Study

OMB Circular No. A-123 requires agencies to provide an annual assurance statement that represents the agency head's informed judgment as to the overall adequacy and effectiveness of internal controls related to operations, reporting, and compliance objectives. Although the Air Force is required annually to assess and report on its control effectiveness and to correct known deficiencies, it has been unable to demonstrate basic internal control, as identified in previous audits, that would allow it to report, with reasonable assurance, the reliability of internal controls, including those designed to account for mission-critical assets.

This report, developed in connection with fulfilling GAO's mandate to audit the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements, examines the extent to which the Air Force has incorporated ERM into its management practices and designed a process for assessing internal control, including processes related to mission-critical assets.

GAO reviewed Air Force policies and procedures and interviewed Air Force officials on their process for fulfilling ERM and internal control assessments.

Recommendations

GAO is making 12 recommendations to the Air Force, which include improving its risk management practices and internal control assessments. The Air Force agreed with all 12 recommendations and cited actions to address them.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Full report, gao contacts.

Kristen Kociolek Director [email protected] (202) 512-2989

Office of Public Affairs

Chuck Young Managing Director [email protected] (202) 512-4800

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• Defence and armed forces

Air Operating Concept (AirOpC)

The RAF’s contribution to national defence and its evolution to succeed in a more contested and volatile world.

Air Operating Concept

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Air Operating Concept Executive Summary

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The Air Operating Concept (AirOpC) explains the RAF’s evolution to face the challenges of the future operating environment and its core role of controlling the air.

The RAF will succeed using decision superiority to create integrated effects, using an agile, integrated and resilient force to deter, defend and defeat.

It provides the impetus for follow-on activities across defence to achieve its evolution.

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