Air Force to discuss IT services contracting at Corona next week

ORLANDO, FL -- Senior Air Force officials will meet next week for the service's annual Corona meeting and will discuss, among many other topics, the future of information technology contracting.

Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said during an Oct. 27 presentation at the Airlift/Tanker Association's annual symposium here the service is considering contracting for IT as a service rather than continuing to invest in and maintain its own systems.

"How much of this do we need to own and how much of this can we actually just contract out?" Goldfein asked.

Industry has invested "billions of dollars" into IT capability the service could use without having to own and maintain it, Goldfein said. That shift could not only save money, but may allow the Air Force to move those airmen who currently focus on maintaining its IT and communications systems into more of a cyber operations role.

"Right now, we have equal parts traditional communications and cyber operations," he said. "You're going to see us migrate over time so we can contract more and more of the traditional communications out and move folks into cyber operations."