Gen. Bowlds: new AF standards to force reorganization

  • Published
  • By Chuck Paone
  • 66th Air Base Wing
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Nearly five years after aligning its acquisition workforce into wings, groups and squadrons, Electronic Systems Center is preparing to deal with reorganization again, Center Commander Lt. Gen. Ted Bowlds said July 16. 

Speaking to well over a thousand civilian, military and contractor employees at his commander's call in Hanscom's Aero Club hangar, the general said strict new Air Force size standards will force the changes. Wings must contain at least 1,000 military and civilian employees, groups at least 400. 

The formula for calculating totals allows units to count contractors as one-third of an employee. Because contractors make up more than a third of the ESC acquisition workforce, this significantly reduces each unit's total numbers.
 
"There's no way we can make the numbers work." General Bowlds said. 

Even the 66th Air Base Wing, which is less reliant on contract workers, doesn't have sufficient personnel numbers to meet the new standard, but General Bowlds said he intends to request a waiver.  He said he's already submitted a waiver package on that because the ABW not only supports ESC and Hanscom but has such a huge regional mission. 

The Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command and ESC are considering several options for restructuring the acquisition workforce, General Bowlds said. Perhaps wings will be transformed into directorates, with wing commanders and directors empowered as program executive officers, he said. 

Each option, the general said, must be considered carefully, to ensure no unintended negative consequences occur. 

"So much is personality-dependent," he said. "Right now, we have the right mix of personalities, to where I'm confident that everyone will continue to work together, no matter what the org charts look like, for the good of the enterprise. But what if, at some later date, we don't have the right personalities?" 

He said maintaining that enterprise focus is the most important consideration, because the risks of returning to an era of stovepiped system management are too great. 

"It's a work in progress right now," General Bowlds said of reorganizational planning. He noted that nothing would likely change before January, but also added that he expected changes to be finalized by next June. 

The general addressed numerous other topics during the call, including the sharp drop in base operations and maintenance funding anticipated for 2010. He showed a chart chronicling the gradual decline in funding over the past few fiscal years and the more dramatic decline anticipated for next fiscal year. 

General Bowlds said this would affect a number of things, possibly including base services and travel, but vowed that the organization would weather the storm without making draconian quality of life cuts. 

The commander also discussed leadership changes, including news that Brig. Gen. Cathy Chilton, his individual mobilization augmentee, has agreed to dual-hat as the center's vice commander. Brig. Gen. Terry Feehan, who had previously held the position, moved onto his new assignment with the Missile Defense Office in Huntsville, Ala., last month. 

General Bowlds offered a "mid-term assessment" on the key priorities he'd set for the center, saying up front that he believed ESC has earned "a solid A or A-minus for each." 

He said he was very pleased with efforts to return to a "back-to-basics, by-the-book compliance culture," noting in particular the successes listed by AFMC's Inspector General team, which visited in June. Not only did the team close-out a majority of open items from the November 2008 Unit Compliance Inspection, but it also detected "zero new findings." 

In addition, the team cited ESC for several best practices and lauded Pat Sabine of the 66 ABW Inspector General's Office as an outstanding performer. 

The general also trumpeted center efforts to lean its processes, including a 50 percent reduction in system engineering plan review time, noting that the streamlined process has also resulted in superior products. 

Innovative efforts by center personnel to bring both evolutionary and revolutionary capabilities to the warfighter were also lauded by the general. 

He said the center is now maximizing its use of things such as federally funded research and development center efforts, corporate independent research and development, and cooperative research and development agreements. He added that in-house capabilities, especially in terms of engineering support, are now being used more heavily and effectively. 

General Bowlds also highlighted some good news on the hiring front, saying that ESC has already achieved a net gain of 242 personnel in 2009. He said the center is taking ever-more-innovative approaches to acquiring needed talent, too, noting ongoing development of a personnel database that will highlight the prospective talent available and allow managers to see what specific skills they can acquire when adding new hires.