TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla —
When Lt. Gen. Tom Miller walked within the doorways of the Air Power Sustainment Middle headquarters this summer season, he was strolling a widely known path, however this time he carried with him the cost of a brand new accountability as commander of the just about 40,000 Airmen who comprise AFSC.
Since that day, he has spent a lot of his time visiting models and assembly the Airmen who carry the mission to life, studying how they’re approaching their specific mission set and addressing challenges that come their means.
“What is actually encouraging to me is the progressive means individuals assault issues throughout the sustainment middle – all the pieces from the extremely consequential impacts of COVID-19 on the mission and the tragic affect it has had on many households … to coping with growing older weapons programs which have declining vendor bases,” Miller stated. “I’ve seen unimaginable examples of progressive methods of getting after each enduring issues and new issues.”
Miller beforehand served inside AFSC as deputy commander for Upkeep at Ogden Air Logistics Advanced, commander of the Oklahoma Metropolis ALC and vice commander of AFSC. “Kim and I are thrilled to rejoin this staff,” he stated. “Whether or not it’s uniformed Airmen or civil servant Airmen, they’re serving their nation throughout a troublesome time. We respect them dedicating their skilled funding into defending our nation. It’s not a straightforward factor to do and we’re surrounded by individuals who do it actually, very well.”
Supporting ‘Speed up Change or Lose’ as conceived by Chief of Workers of the Air Power Gen. Charles Brown would require each flexibility and price consciousness for the sustainment middle, he stated.
“We now have to be able to pivot and assist the readiness wants of the US Air Power,” Miller stated. “And we’ve got to do it in a means that not solely delivers airplanes and engines and components again to Airmen on the finish of the operational chain, however we’ve got to do it in an economical means in order that it’s reasonably priced.”
I feel most are conscious that, sustainment makes up the vast majority of a weapon system’s lifecycle prices.
“We dwell in a fiscally constrained surroundings. As our Air Power faces escalating prices in each newly fielded weapon programs and people made earlier than I used to be born, we’ve got to proceed to seek out progressive methods to scale back the price of sustainment whereas sustaining the readiness our nation wants. Miller stated. “These step change enhancements are laborious to make wherever besides within the sustainment middle.”
The concentrate on readiness is steeped from real-world, high-level priorities. “When the SECAF opens his speech at [the Air Force Association] with ‘I’ve three priorities – China, China, and China’ – that’s not a refined message,” Miller stated. “I feel we get right into a false sense of safety that we would not ever lose, and I don’t suppose that’s true. The potential is there for us to lose if we don’t change what we’ve completed prior to now.
“CSAF framed it for us very well. Accelerating change is thrilling. Shedding is frightening.”
To Miller, the highway to success lies in prioritizing the middle’s 4 strategic objectives:
- Drive cost-effective fight readiness
- Ship provide chain readiness to allow fight energy
- Develop mission assurance enablers
- Develop and assist Airmen
“In all 4 of these areas, the widespread success ingredient is belief,” Miller stated. “Individuals function higher after they’re trusted.”
With the sustainment middle geographically dispersed amongst 24 places, belief is an particularly important aspect of management. When Miller first grew to become a gaggle commander, his wing commander identified that it was the primary time Miller was the commander of commanders. “A pair a long time within the Air Power and I had by no means considered that,” the final stated. “It had an affect on me. You’re not doing all the pieces your self. You may’t. Try to be accessible to individuals, present them expectations, and break down the boundaries they current to you. After which belief them to execute their mission.”
