Sue Payton, the senior acquisition official in the Air Force, is an unlikely military reformer. She has spent a career in the defense industry and recently completed a long stint under former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

When Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne swore her in 17 months ago as the service’s top weapons buyer, he said her charge was to infuse “integrity and transparency” into the acquisition process after a procurement scandal.

In her first address as one of the aerospace industry’s top spokespeople, Marion Blakey, a former senior Bush administration appointee, said U.S. aerospace companies had a banner year.

“With good news in nearly every sector, I am pleased to see the American aerospace industry’s strong international presences continuing to keep pace with our domestic successes,” said Blakey, the new chief of the Aerospace Industries Association, the country’s top lobbying organization for military and commercial aviation companies.