§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. Each military department Secretary must sign a memorandum of understanding with that Air Force office within 180 days about who oversees and manages those aircraft. The Secretary of Defense must create rules to decide who gets priority to use the aircraft. The Secretary of Defense must also name a career Senior Executive Service appointee (as defined in 5 U.S.C. 3132(a)) to run day-to-day coordination, make sure rules are followed, and who knows about executive aircraft and how to prioritize users. Each military department Secretary keeps final authority to schedule their own required use travelers. If a department’s executive aircraft are not needed for its required travelers, those planes must be made available for other required use travelers. The Secretary of Defense may not set up a new command-and-control organization for the aircraft. No executive aircraft may be permanently based somewhere without a required use traveler unless the Secretary of Defense approves. The terms “required use traveler” and “executive aircraft” mean what the Department of Defense directives defined on the law’s enactment date.