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Contracting professionals are anticipating faster acquisition of warfighting equipment and support systems, part of a broader military-wide effort to field gear faster. Speaking during a panel event at Life Cycle Industry Days (LCID), Joseph Fountain, SES, Director of Contracting for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, highlighted several recent changes brought on by the service’s Acquisition Transformation Strategy (ATS) to reduce red tape for industry partners. “[W]here you used to have a clearance at either the [Senior Contracting Official] level - my level - or at the Air Force level, we've now pushed that all down to the [Chief of the Contracting Office], which is the senior contracting person within the PAEs,” Fountain said. He believes the move to push decision-making to Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAEs) will “empower them to make decisions," stating that over 80% of contracting authority has been moved to the directorate level. Additional panel members were: Jim St. Jean, Vice President of Contracts at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and Thomas Glaub, Boeing’s Vice President of Government Enterprise Contracts and Estimating. (U.S. Air Force video by Jim Varhegyi)
| Date Taken: | 07.27.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 08.11.2026 01:31 |
| Category: | Briefings |
| Video ID: | 1018257 |
| VIRIN: | 260810-F-FC975-1005 |
| Filename: | DOD_111895414 |
| Length: | 01:01:11 |
| Location: | DAYTON, OHIO, US |
| Downloads: | 0 |
| High-Res. Downloads: | 0 |
This work, LCID 2026 Panel: Prioritizing Speed and Agility in Contracting, by James Varhegyi, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
