Senate confirms General Bowlds as next center commander

  • Published
  • By Chuck Paone
  • 66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AFB, Mass. --  On Friday, the United States Senate confirmed Maj. Gen. Ted Bowlds as the next commander of the Electronic Systems Center and for appointment to the grade of lieutenant general. 

He will succeed Lt. Gen. Chuck Johnson, who has commanded the center since December 2003 and is retiring after more than 35 years of active-duty Air Force service. A change of command ceremony has been scheduled for Nov. 7. 

General Bowlds is currently serving as commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. There he has been responsible for managing the Air Force's $2 billion science and technology program, as well as additional customer-funded research and development worth $1.7 billion. He is also responsible for a workforce of approximately 9,500 people in the laboratory's component technology directorates and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. 

General Bowlds entered the Air Force in 1975 through the ROTC program. In earlier assignments, he served as an engineer in an Air Force laboratory and as a flight test engineer on the F-117. He has worked as avionics program manager on the B-2, bomber branch chief at the Pentagon, chief of Advance Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile development in the AMRAAM System Program Office, and as commander of the Rome Laboratory in Rome, N.Y. 

General Bowlds also served as the deputy director of Global Power Programs with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. Prior to assuming his current position, he was assigned to Wright-Patterson's Aeronautical Systems Center as deputy for acquisition. 

A 1975 graduate of Mississippi State University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, General Bowlds also holds a master of science degree in electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. 

His many awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal; the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster; and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.