ESC readies to transition; PEOs to merge

  • Published
  • By Patty Welsh
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
The Electronic Systems Center is in the midst of preparing for two significant changes. First, the Center is preparing to become a part of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, or AFLCMC, and the second is a merger between two of the current program executive offices.

"As we execute these transitions, we want to continue to ensure ESC personnel are kept informed, while also ensuring everyone keeps focused on our critical mission," said Rich Lombardi, ESC executive director and acting program executive officer for C3I and Networks. "We want to make sure our personnel can continue to do the great work they do to support the warfighter without interruption."

The AFLCMC is a part of a 5-Center construct that the Air Force Materiel Command announced in November of last year to improve efficiencies. On June 18, AFMC stated that they had met three critical requirements in order for them to move forward with the construct.

The Senate has confirmed AFMC's new general officers to lead the consolidated centers, two Congressionally mandated reports have been delivered to Congress and Headquarters Air Force has formally approved the AFMC 5 Center construct as documented in the Organization Change Request.

Lt. Gen. C.D. Moore II, who previously has been the AFMC vice commander, became the AFLCMC commander July 9. And while the headquarters will be at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Moore will also spend a significant amount of time at Hanscom.

"An office has been set up and dedicated for the general here that he can use as an alternate location for leading AFLCMC," said Lombardi.

A Transition Ceremony is scheduled to take place at Hanscom July 16 when ESC will officially become part of the AFLCMC. Other organizations becoming part of the 5-Center structure will transition on other dates in July. Please view the AFMC release for additional dates and information.

"A lot of planning has gone into this, and the transition has been approved," said Larry Coe, ESC LCMC lead. "So, we're gearing up to implement it across AFMC."

Since the November announcement of the planned 5-Center construct, the AFLCMC transition team has taken on the task of reviewing, revising and documenting processes and procedures related to operations of the AFLCMC in preparation for activation. This, in coordination with activities of the AFMC and other center teams, will help lead to effective integrated operations across the command as it heads toward an initial operational capability on October 1.

Also occurring in mid-July, the current Battle Management and Theater Command and Control program executive offices will combine into one program executive office, maintaining the name Battle Management. The main areas the combined PEO will cover include mission planning, operations centers, theater C3, strategic surveillance, aerospace management and intelligence processing, exploitation and dissemination. The program executive officer will be Steven Wert, a senior executive service member.

"The current PEOs have been preparing for this merger to minimize any impact on program execution resulting from this change," said Lombardi.

The program executive office for C3I&N will remain and its main focus areas will be cyber, networks, crypto and data links. Maj. Gen. Craig Olson has been selected by the Air Force to be the program executive officer for C3I&N.

Also, as part of the new AFLCMC structure, the Aerospace Sustainment Directorates at the Air Logistics Depots will report directly to their assigned PEOs.

According to a previous presentation given by Moore, this is to encourage product support earlier in the process.

It's cradle-to-grave management with product support occurring throughout the life cycle, he said at a Town Hall held at Hanscom in May.

Additional information on the transition to AFLCMC can be found on the Hanscom public website.

"Personnel from throughout ESC have been working hard on LCMC throughout the past year to make the transition as seamless as possible," said Coe.