By Lt. Gen. Scott Kindsvater, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
As the U.S. defense enterprise pivots toward rapid capability delivery and agile warfighting, the Air Force stands at the forefront of a historic transformation spurred on by the recently codified Warfighting Acquisition System (WAS).
This new system represents a critical philosophical shift. It mandates that readiness no longer be a by-product of long procurement cycles and compliance checklists, but rather it must become a continuous process of sensing, analyzing, and delivering capability faster than adversaries can respond.
For the Department of the Air Force (DAF), this means integrating cutting-edge analytics, AI-enabled decision support, and cross-domain data fusion directly into how systems are acquired, sustained, and operated.
Acquisition Moving Forward To A Wartime Footing
In January 2026, the Air Force announced it was implementing WAS across the service. The objective: transform acquisition from a bureaucratic process into a warfighter-focused engine for rapid capability delivery.
Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said in this announcement that this transformation will enable the DAF to “support the rapid and efficient development of our warfighting capabilities in order to get the operators what they need when they need it.”
Central to this reform is a restructuring of authority and accountability. Traditional Program Executive Officers (PEOs) have transitioned into Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAEs), empowering these leaders with the authority to make real-time decisions tailored to mission needs. By collapsing layers of oversight and granting PAEs greater autonomy to move beyond legacy processes, the Air Force is institutionalizing speed as a strategic priority.
The DAF’s acquisition overhaul also extends into the space domain, where the U.S. Space Force is redefining how space capabilities are acquired and fielded. By designating key mission areas—such as Space Access and Space Based Sensing and Targeting—to PAEs, the Space Force is ensuring that acquisition strategies prioritize speed, adaptability, and alignment with warfighting needs.
The Space Force’s approach embraces a “commercial first” spirit, one seeking to harness industry innovation at the speed of a startup rather than traditional decade-long development cycles.
As Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, put it: “We cannot be locked into decade-long development cycles.”
How AFGSC Leverages Decision Intelligence
This new acquisition framework aligns closely with broader DoW priorities to embed AI and data science into operational readiness and sustainment. As defense innovation accelerates, the Air Force has increasingly recognized that legacy sustainment models cannot keep pace with evolving threats and contested logistics. Integrating AI-powered analytics into acquisition, maintenance, and lifecycle support becomes essential to making informed decisions at speed.
The U.S. Air Force’s Global Strike Command (AFGSC), recognizing this need, partnered with Virtualitics to gain stronger end-to-end data visibility and decision intelligence within the force. AFGSC is leveraging Virtualitics’ Integrated Readiness Optimization (IRO) applications to:
- Fuse disparate maintenance, inventory, and operational datasets
- Uncover hidden risk patterns
- Guide predictive maintenance
- Optimize resource allocation
Virtualitics IRO has delivered significant results to AFGSC operations, including in the planning, storage, and mobilization of critical munitions assets. Considered one of the most time-consuming sustainment tasks, Virtualitics has saved the force more than 50,000 man-hours, significantly reduced human error, and accelerated decision-making across the force.
These advancements enable planners to move from weeks-long manual tasks to real-time, data-driven decisions, maximizing existing infrastructure and delaying costly facility construction. And for warfighters on the flight line, this means obsolete processes are being exchanged for adaptive, real-time delivery of capability.
This is a cultural shift that reframes readiness not just as having equipment and resources available, but as having the right equipment and resources—optimized, updated, and supported by actionable insight.
Readiness as a Continuous, Data-Driven Process
Taken together, these reforms position readiness within the Air Force and Space Force as a continuously evolving capability, not a static state.
Combining WAS’s accelerated acquisition ethos with advanced AI-powered analytics enables leaders to anticipate sustainment bottlenecks, prioritize risk mitigation, and deliver capability at the pace of relevance. For an Air and Space Force operating in a deterrence-centric security environment, with contested logistics and rapid technological change, this transformation isn’t optional—it’s imperative.
In this new era, readiness is not simply having assets available. It’s about harnessing the power of data, AI, and decision intelligence to deliver decisive advantage when it matters most.
