Change-Up

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz recently announced that Brig. Gen. Clyde Moore, a career test pilot, will be the next deputy director of the Joint Strike Fighter program office. And, if trends continue, Moore will take over top slot in two years.

Moore will take the job this spring, when Marine Corps Brig. Gen. David Heinz takes over the head position, currently held by Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Davis. As a multiservice outfit, the JSF office gets a new leader every two years -- either an Air Force general officer or a Navy or Marine Corps officer. Typically, the deputy ascends to the director's slot after two years.

Moore is the director of special programs at the Pentagon's weapons-buying shop. In the late 1990s, he was an F-22A test pilot and the director of the Raptor's combine test force and the chief of the jet's test and evaluation division.

He, like Davis, also has had a career as an experimental test pilot for the F-15 Eagle, the F-16 Viper and the T-38 Talon. Though they operated out of different bases, many of Moore's assignments came just after Davis moved to a different post.

Once reassigned, Davis will become the commander of the Air Force's Air Armament Center and the program executive office for weapons at Air Force Materiel Command, Eglin Air Force Base, FL.