Washington, Aug. 2 F. Whitten Peters was confirmed Friday as the 19th Secretary of the Air Force following a final round of confirmation hearings July 21st before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Peters had been acting service secretary for 20 months. His nomination ends a void in Air Force leadership that has existed since the previous Air Force Secretary; Sheila Widnall resigned in late 1996 to return to her academic roots. Peters has been supportive of Widnalls evolutionary initiative to begin evolving the Air Force "first to an air and space force, then a space and air force," as Widnalls space doctrine was termed. That evolutionary process could take decades, and is opposed by some elements of the Air Force. But greater reliance upon space assets in conducting routine Air Force missions has grown within the service, particularly since the 1991 Gulf War.

Peters is facing increasing pressures on the Air Force budget and rising difficulties in retaining experienced pilots during this period of growth of commercial aviation and the aerospace industry. He is also facing a service beset with recent political problems. The Clinton administration's original choice for Air Force chief, Florida legislator Daryl Jones, was rejected by the Senate in a tie vote July 22, 1998. The rejection followed a series of contentious debates in Congress over allegations that Jones falsified his flying record as an Air Force Reserve officer in Florida. Jones denied the charges at the time of his confirmation hearings. Peters was acting-secretary at the time of Jones' political battles and wound up being the final White House choice. Some members of Congress have suggested that the administration was unable to get any other prospective nominee that could have been confirmed in the current political atmosphere. "Peters wound up as the least objectionable choice," one Hill source said last week.

The Air Forces top space programs, the Space-Based Infrared Satellite (SBIRS) system and the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), have met with full Congressional budget approval, and the SBIRS project has received additional funding above the administrations recent requests.