The Pentagon has striped the Air Force of responsibility for 21 of its own major procurement programs, including its number one priority, the F/A-22 stealth fighter, and also the C-17 cargo jet, satellite programs and new generation rockets. These functions will now be handled by senior Pentagon officials outside the Air Force.
Below the fold, I discuss what happened. In short, the Bush Administration's management of the Air Force is incompetent.
The problem: The Air Force doesn't have a Senate approved Secretary of the Air Force, an acquisitions chief, or an undersecretary. They all resigned. The previous incumbents were marred in part by when their bungling of a plan to lease air tankers from Boeing was exposed by Republican John McCain, resulting in a criminal conviction of one of the key Air Force officials involved for violating conflict of interest rules (there was an apperance that Boeing bribed him with a job at Boeing, if the deal was approved).
The acting Secretary of the Air Force, Michael Dominguez, has his background in the HR functions of the Air Force, but has no procurement experience.
Has this been caused by Democratic opposition? No. There has been no serious opposition to any of the administration's Air Force appointments from the Democratic party. The White House simply hasn't made up its mind on who it wants to nominate for the posts.
No link is provided because my source is the hard copy Wall Street Journal (March 29, 2005, page A4), and related background from personal knowledge.