Portfolio Acquisition Executive Maneuver Air (PAE Maneuver Air)
PAE Maneuver Air owns the Army’s air maneuver capability area: crewed and uncrewed aviation, aircraft survivability, and special operations aviation. It sits at Fort Rucker with the Aviation_Center_of_Excellence, pairing the requirements writer with the buyer.
| Type | Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) |
| Location | Fort Rucker, AL |
| Portfolio Acquisition Executive | Clair_Gill (MG) |
| Deputy PAE | David_Phillips (BG) |
| Reports to | ASAALT for acquisition and materiel development; T2COM for requirements generation |
| Consolidates | PEO_Aviation, aircraft survivability programs from PEO_IEWS, and autonomy initiatives |
| Established | Announced 14 November 2025; initial operating capability January 2026 |
Mission
Own the air maneuver capability area: requirements, science and technology, contracting, acquisition, test, programming, sustainment, and international sales for Army aviation. Like every PAE it carries an embedded Senior Contracting Official with award authority.
Subordinate Organizations
- CPE_Aviation — crewed and uncrewed Army aviation, Redstone_Arsenal, AL
- CPE_Special_Programs_Air — special operations aviation, established May 2026
CPE_Mission_Autonomy reported here until May 2026, when it moved to PAE_Layered_Protection_CBRN.
In direct support: Army_Contracting_Command-Redstone Arsenal, ATEC and the Redstone Test Center, Aviation and Missile Command, and the DEVCOM_Aviation_and_Missile_Center.
Program Element families
See CPE_Aviation for the detail. Procurement rolls up through Aircraft Procurement, Army; the principal RDT&E lines are 0605241A FLRAA, 0607136A Black Hawk, 0607137A Chinook, 0607145A Apache, and 0607139A ITEP.
Why it matters
Fort Rucker is now the front door for Army aviation business development. The PAE Maneuver Air Industry Days, hosted with the Aviation_Center_of_Excellence, are the portfolio-level engagement event; sessions cover PAE Maneuver Air, CPE_Aviation, and Futures_and_Concepts_Command together.
The portfolio spans two installations. Requirements and portfolio direction at Fort Rucker; program execution, engineering, and contracting at Redstone_Arsenal. Both matter, for different reasons.
Aircraft survivability moved in from the sensors portfolio. That realignment put survivability equipment on the same reporting line as the aircraft it protects, and it is one of the reform’s cleaner consolidations.
See Also
- ASAALT — acquisition chain
- T2COM — requirements chain; Aviation_Center_of_Excellence, Futures_and_Concepts_Command
- CPE_Aviation, CPE_Special_Programs_Air, CPE_Mission_Autonomy
- PAE_Maneuver, PAE_Fires, PAE_C2_CC2, PAE_Agile_Sustainment_Ammo, PAE_Layered_Protection_CBRN
- Army_Acquisition_Reform_2025, Defense_Acquisition_System, JCIDS