A broad review of U.S. Air Force programs may lead to the cancellation of some smaller efforts, service Secretary Heather Wilson said April 20.

“I’ve gotten an initial briefing on it, and they’ve identified some programs that may end up not being continued,” Wilson said during the question-and-answer portion of an American Enterprise Institute event. “Most of them were smaller programs. The big programs get a lot of attention as we develop our budget. But a lot of the smaller programs don’t,” so they received more scrutiny during the review than they usually get.

Heather Wilson testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on her nomination to be Air Force secretary. (Air Force photo)
U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson (Air Force photo)

She defined smaller programs as those that receive funding of less than $25 million or $30 million a year.

The Air Force “scrubbed” almost 1,200 programs during the review, whose results will be rolled into planning efforts over the summer for fiscal year 2020.

Air Force Undersecretary Matthew Donovan disclosed the launch of the two-month review in January, saying the service had not conducted a similar effort in more than 20 years (Defense Daily, Jan. 18).

Donovan said the review was meant to go beyond the annual budget process, which typically focuses on changes from the previous year.