Barry D. Watts took office today as the director of Program Analysis and Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Prior to his new position, Watts had been the director of the Northrop Grumman Analysis Center in Arlington, Va., his employer since 1986. His duties included analysis of military capabilities, strategy and operational doctrine. From 1991 to 1993, he headed the Gulf War Air Power Survey's work on operations and effectiveness.
Previously, Watts served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 1986. His military career included an F-4 combat tour in Southeast Asia with the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, subsequent assignments in Japan and Okinawa as an F-4 Wild Weasel aircraft commander, and an instructional assignment, teaching philosophy and mathematical logic, at the U.S. Air Force Academy. During his military career, he also served in the Office of Net Assessment, working on Korean and NATO-Warsaw Pact balance assessments, and in the Air Staff's Project Checkmate as a Soviet threat specialist.
Watts' published writings span such topics as air-to-air combat tactics, measures of effectiveness, and coalition air power in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, among other subjects. He recently completed an assessment of military competition in near-earth space for the Center for Budgetary and Strategic Assessments (February 2001).
The new director is a 1965 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy with a bachelor's degree in mathematics; he also holds a master's in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh (1974).
The Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation advises the secretary and deputy secretary of Defense about the relationship of defense programs and budgets to U.S. defense objectives, projected threats, allied contributions, estimated costs and resource constraints. More information about the office's responsibilities is on the Web at http://www.defenselink.mil/pae/index.html.
