§120 Department of Defense executive aircraft controlled by Secretaries of military departments

Summary

The Secretary of Defense must give the Chief of the Air Force Special Air Mission Office the job of coordinating the schedules for all Department of Defense executive aircraft that the military department Secretaries control so those planes can serve required use travelers. Within 180 days, each military department Secretary must sign a memorandum of understanding with that Air Force office about oversight and management of their executive aircraft. The Secretary of Defense must set rules for who gets priority to use those aircraft and must assign a career appointee in the Senior Executive Service (as defined in section 3132(a) of title 5) to coordinate assignments and ensure rules are followed. Each military department Secretary keeps final authority to schedule their own required use travelers and must make aircraft available to others when not needed. The Department may not create a new command-and-control organization for aircraft, and no executive aircraft may be permanently based somewhere without a required use traveler unless the Secretary of Defense approves. “Required use traveler” and “executive aircraft” mean what DoD directives 4500.56 and 4500.43 said on the law’s enactment date.