AFMC vice commander discusses changes at town hall

  • Published
  • By Patty Welsh
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --   Lt. Gen. C.D. Moore II, Air Force Materiel Command vice commander, held a town hall meeting May 15 for the Electronic Systems Center workforce where he discussed ongoing and upcoming changes here.

He thanked the two departing commanders, Lt. Gen. CR Davis, formerly Electronic Systems Center commander, and Col. Stacy Yike, 66th Air Base Group commander, for their hard work and accomplishments during their time at Hanscom.

Moore announced that Col. Mark Spillman, former ESC vice commander, has been appointed center commander.

"Colonel Spillman is the right guy for the job," he said. "I'm looking forward to working with him."

Before discussing information regarding the AFMC five-center reorganization, the general highlighted the country's national debt, saying it has an impact on everyone.

"We in the Department of Defense are doing our part," he said, adding that budget challenges are part of the reasoning behind the reorganization.

The Air Force's portion of reductions from the Budget Control Act is $54 billion over five years, while DOD needs to reduce $487 billion over 10 years.

"We're making tough decisions," Moore said. "With a smaller budget, we're still going to have the best Air Force in the world."

He then spoke about the reorganization.

"The mission hasn't changed," Moore said, but added that the organizational structure of ESC will change.

Under the five-center construct, the components of ESC will fall under the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, headquartered at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The Air Force has tapped Moore to be the AFLCMC commander.

Program executive offices and program managers will remain accountable to the Service Acquisition Executive. However, using a life-cycle model encourages product support earlier in the process, the general explained.

"We need to think cradle-to-grave management of systems," Moore said. "It's a different paradigm with product support throughout the life of the weapon system."

Today, an item is sometimes fielded before its support concept is determined.

"Our challenge in LCMC will be determining product support," he said. "We want to ensure we can get the capability to the warfighter, but we need to ensure those capabilities are deliverable and supportable."

Moore said he feels this won't be a big "culture adjustment" for ESC people. "My understanding is that you already spend a lot of time thinking about this," he said.

The general also talked about the upcoming timeline for the reorganization, saying that summer would be a transition period before initial operational capability on Oct. 1.

He said upcoming milestones that need to be met are providing congressionally-mandated reports and Air Force approval of the organizational change request.

"We're close," Moore said. "We have the best and the brightest working on the planning teams."

Moore said there remain challenges to be figured out and lessons learned to study as the construct is implemented. "With life cycle management, we will be able to birth programs right," he said. "We'll be able to give them the right start - the right S&T, system engineering and product support strategy."