William T. Hobbins

Air Force
William T. Hobbins
Acting Chief Information Officer

As a fighter pilot, Lt. Gen. William T. Hobbins prides himself on bringing an operator's perspective to the highest echelons of the Air Force's information technology community. In a career that has spanned four decades, Hobbins has commanded two tactical fighter wings, led the intercept of 80 Soviet bombers, and commanded forces in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. In short, he understands a pilot's point of view from inside the cockpit. As acting chief information officer, Hobbins has helped guide the service's vision of "shortening the kill chain," the series of events leading from identification of a potential target to the ultimate defeat of that target.

In May, he became acting chief of the Air Force's new Office of Warfighting Integration and chief information officer. The post was created to centralize all the service's business and warfighting information technology needs, resources and governance.

Hobbins says the office already is bearing fruit by centralizing support staff and allowing the IT community to speak as one voice, both to the field and from the field. The ultimate objective for the Air Force is to have "a predictive, street-smart architecture," where IT systems will recognize pilots by their IP addresses, regardless of where they are around the world, and anticipate their needs.

He predicts it will take the Air Force about five years to have codified operations that make the service's IT vision a reality. But his future is up in the air. In June, President Bush nominated Maj. Gen. Michael Peterson to become permanent director of the new IT organization. Peterson is currently director of the Air Force's Strategic Command and Air Component Coordination Element in U.S. Strategic Command. He is expected to have a confirmation hearing in late September. Hobbins might continue in another capacity within the Air Force, or move into the private sector.