TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. —
The Air Drive Sustainment Heart was created in 2012 to streamline the sustainment wants for weapon programs from all over the world, evaluating their standing, stripping them down, repairing, re-assembling and portray them, and getting them again within the air as shortly as doable.
The U.S. Air Drive was challenged by the U.S. Congress throughout the Sequestration funds disaster to seek out extra environment friendly methods of working. What was as soon as solely an thought coalesced into an actual chance on a 2011 flight from Afghanistan to the U.S., when a four-star basic introduced the topic as much as a airplane of commanders.
“We informed the final, there’s an idea we’ve been interested by for 10 years prior,” mentioned then-Maj. Gen. Bruce Litchfield, “and that’s to take a extra enterprise strategy to how we do enterprise within the Air Drive Materiel Command. That was the technology of the thought that `now’s the time to do one thing completely different’. So the five-center assemble was born.”
Because the idea of the 5 facilities below AFMC matured (finally increasing to a sixth middle), leaders determined to look previous merely consolidating areas and creating efficiencies in workflow and to take a look at how the U.S. Air Drive might get essentially the most potential out of nationwide property and capabilities and the human capital that had been already in place.
Lt. Gen. Tom Miller, present AFSC commander, who was a colonel on the time, co-led a crew of fifty officers and senior civilians tasked with the creation of the Air Drive Sustainment Heart. “We wished to verify we’d do no hurt to the mission we had been doing as we had been remodeling,” mentioned Miller. “We threw an enormous web to listen to voices from all areas and there have been quite a few unimaginable leaders that labored tirelessly to be sure that the creation went in the appropriate path.”
“Nobody likes change,” added Litchfield, “however by giving leaders an opportunity to construct their very own group and processes, to create the instruments they wanted and to make the most of their management abilities, they went from skeptics to advocates.
“The largest reward is seeing what was put into play 10 years in the past nonetheless getting used at present.”
On July 10, 2012, the AFSC was formally activated at a ceremony at Tinker Air Drive Base, Oklahoma, with Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, commander of the Air Drive Materiel Command, officiating. Litchfield, commander of the Oklahoma Metropolis Air Logistics Heart on the time, was promoted to lieutenant basic and put in as commander of AFSC. The Oklahoma Metropolis Air Logistics Heart, Ogden Air Logistics Heart and Warner Robins Air Logistics Heart had been designated as complexes and realigned below AFSC together with two provide chain wings and three air base wings.
Right this moment, AFSC gives sustainment for the Air Drive’s most refined weapons programs, together with fighter jets F-35 Lightning, F-15 Eagle, F-16 Falcon and F-22 Raptor; refueling planes KC-46 Pegasus and KC-135 Stratotanker; the assault airplane A-10 Thunderbolt; bombers B-1 Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress; cargo planes C-5 Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 Hercules; early warning planes E-3 Sentry and E-6 Mercury; coach T-38 Talon; unmanned aerial automobile QF-16; Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile; in addition to a variety of engines and part elements.
AFSC is headquartered at Tinker Air Drive Base, offering oversight of upkeep, provide chain actions and set up assist. Workers places of work assist guarantee planning, coverage, steerage and procedures are successfully applied and executed for the middle.
Along with Hill AFB, Tinker AFB and Robins AFB, round 20 satellite tv for pc areas assist assist the Air Drive Sustainment Heart, together with Scott Air Drive Base in Illinois, and Wright-Patterson Air Drive Base, Ohio.
All AFSC actions are guided by the Artwork of the Doable, a mannequin enabling AFSC to attain important outcomes whereas being good stewards of taxpayer {dollars}. “Artwork of the Doable was applied because the strategy throughout the Heart in all the pieces we do. It’s basically the playbook for us assault constraints to our mission and to talk the identical language,” shared Miller. It displays collective experiences, classes discovered, greatest practices, acumen and vital content material on how Artwork of the Doable is utilized to each work space in sustainment, he added.
To arrange for the subsequent 10 years, AFSC is specializing in Airmen, each uniformed and civilian.
“We want expertise as numerous because the challenges we face as a nation,” mentioned Miller. “We should proceed to interrupt down limitations to make sure now we have a army and civilian workforce that appears just like the nation we serve. That is how we’ll achieve dealing with our future challenges.”
Litchfield agrees. “We can’t over emphasize the significance of civil servants and what they imply to this Air Drive. Artisans, mechanics, professionals, technicians, engineers, provide chain professionals, and manufacturing specialists are the guts and glue of sustainment. We’ll make it higher tomorrow than it’s at present; higher subsequent week than at present.”
AFSC is leveraging partnerships with trade and academia to speed up innovation all through their processes and create alternatives for information sharing, progress and effectivity.
To usher within the subsequent decade, AFSC will welcome a brand new commander this fall. Maj. Gen. Stacey T. Hawkins has been confirmed to be promoted to lieutenant basic and would be the new commander of the Air Drive Sustainment Heart later this yr. Hawkins at present serves as director of logistics, engineering and power safety at Air Fight Command. With a deep background in upkeep operations and in AFSC, Hawkins beforehand served at Tinker in 2012 and 2013 because the deputy commander for upkeep on the Oklahoma Metropolis Air Logistics Advanced and because the commander of the Ogden Air Logistics Advanced Commander from 2017 to 2019.
Litchfield and Miller are trying ahead to what the AFSC will appear like in one other 10 years. Whereas the way of protection modifications with the state of the world, they each have religion that supporting and defending the nation by means of sustainment will make it a greater and stronger place.
