https://www.airandspaceforces.com/white-czar-highest-profile-air-force-programs/
Nov. 20, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak
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Lt. Gen. Dale White, the military deputy to the Air Force’s acquisition executive, has been nominated for a fourth star and a newly created job overseeing the service’s highest-visibility, highest-risk, and highest-cost programs.
In the new position, called the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Critical Major Weapon Systems, White would oversee:
- The F-47 advanced fighter family, including Collaborative Combat Aircraft
- The LGM-35 Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile
- The B-21 family of systems
- The VC-25B presidential airlift program, also known as “Air Force One.”
If confirmed by the Senate, White will report directly to the Pentagon’s No. 2, Deputy Secretary Steven Feinberg. While he will be an Air Force officer overseeing Air Force programs, White will technically be in a Department of War job, a Pentagon official said.
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The Sentinel is $80 billion over its baseline cost and the Air Force continues to restructure the program since it incurred large overages in cost and schedule. The main culprit seems to be unanticipated challenges in the massive civil engineering effort needed to modernize the launch silos and command capsules that will host the Sentinel; the Air Force is dropping plans to refurbish old infrastructure—which has proven not cost effective—and simply build new.
