AIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, SCHOOL OF SYSTEMS AND LOGISTICS
WRIGHT PATTERSON AFB, OHIO
Over 250 Maintenance leaders descended on Wright Patterson Air Force Base for the Air Force Maintenance Leader Summit, 12-14 October 2022. This global summit marks the second gathering of Officer, Enlisted, and Civilian maintenance leaders and the first time with in person attendance at the Air Force Institute of Technology, School of Systems and Logistics’ Kenney Hall auditorium. Col William Maxwell and the officer and enlisted Career Field Managers organized the government led event.
The summit kicked off Day 1 with a Strategic level overview on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Aerospace Power: trends in China’s Military Air, Space, and Missile Forces
Dr. Brendan Mulvaney, Director of the China Aerospace Studies Institute led the conversation. For more information on CASI please visit their website: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/ or view their short mission video.
Mr. Harry Conley explained the SECAF’s Operational Imperatives and the impact to the Maintenance community.
Mr. Steve Martinez, Chief, Logistics Strategy, Concepts & Programs Division (AF/A4LX) led an in-depth conversation on Logistics Under Attack and the implications and considerations for the maintainers in the field.
Col William Maxwell, Chief, Aircraft Maintenance Division, baselined the Strategic Initiatives underway in the Air Force and ensured the global maintenance community understood the vocabulary and definitions that are foundational in doctrine, strategy, and operational applications such as Agile Combat Employment and its impact on Maintenance, AFFORGEN, Multi-Capable Airmen, etc.
Brig Gen Lyle Drew, 82d Training Wing Commander, discussed Air Education and Training Command’s Maintenance Training Modernization underway enabling them to support training of 47 percent of the Air Force’s Airmen.
Lt Col Jose Perez, Advanced Concepts Team Chief, provided the field an update on Initiatives and Partnerships within the service, joint mission partners, and our coalition teammates that will help enable Agile Combat Employment and Multi-Capable Airmen.
Maj Paulina Morales, Director of Operations, Air Education Training Command/A9’s Det 23, provided an update on the Member Operations Training Analytics Reporting (MOTAR) solution, the Detachment’s six lines of effort, an update on the Modular Objective Model in development with Agile Battle Lab and A3X, and a series of insights on where the Detachment is heading to support Agile Combat Employment, Multiple Capable Airmen, and Artificial Intelligence initiatives to support the Maintenance community.
AIR FORCE RAPID SUSTAINMENT OFFICE
Lt Col Michael Lasher, Deputy Chief of Logistics, provided an update on the Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office’s CBM+ progress and PANDA. The vision of RSO is to transform the acquisition approach and sustainment enterprise vital to the world’s most advanced Air Force. Through acquisition processes, the RSO increases mission readiness by identifying, applying, and scaling technology and innovative solutions to advance and modernize sustainment operations for the United States Air Force.
Capt. Kristina Wood, Deputy Chief, Advanced Manufacturing Program Office, provided an update and fielded questions behind the Air Force’s path for Advance Manufacturing (AM) in the sustainment and flight line maintenance communities. The Department of the Air Force Advanced Manufacturing Program Office (AMPO) within the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Rapid Sustainment Office (AFLCMC/RO) is tasked to scale organic capability and serve as the Air Force’s focal point for the application of AM in matters related to acquisition and sustainment. The AMPO executes four major functions: Technology Assessment; Airworthiness Certification Support; Product Support Management; and Deployment Across the Enterprise.
Mr. Carl Haynes, Logistics Manager, Accelerating Innovation and Modernization to Scale (AIMS), Rapid Sustainment Office, provided an update on AIMS to support the warfighter. The AIMS Team drives and leads the rapid adoption of sustainment-centric technologies to improve readiness and positively impact costs, be that in-garrison, or in both a contested and uncontested deployed environment, while exploiting modern tools to increase expertise, eliminate waste, enhance situational awareness, and produce and restore mission-critical materiel for the Air Force.
TESSERACT AF, OFFICE OF LOGISTICS INNOVATION
Capt Sophio Rizzo and CMSgt Timothy Jordan from Tesseract AF provided an update on the team’s organizational structure, career fields represented in the Core Cadre, how the team accelerates materiel, process, and policy solutions, recent wins for the Airmen and the Mission to date. TesseractAF’s mission is to accelerate combat-focused Logistics innovation by empowering Airmen and connecting them to a network of ideas and resources in order to improve the Agile Combat Support and Mission Generation capabilities of the United States Air Force.
CMSgt Timothy Jordan announced Tesseract AF is kicking off this year’s Aether Sprint competition, where frontline Airmen have the opportunity to share their perspectives to accelerate solutions. The Air Force logistics enterprise faces plenty of challenges on a daily basis. AETHER Sprint is designed to identify specific problem sets and accelerate field driven solutions. For more information and deadlines on the AETHER Sprint competition visit this LinkedIn post.
Day 2 was a perfect example of operating in a contested environment with degraded comms due to a Power Outage Exercise.
The summit moved to the Base Theater and the planning team didn’t miss a beat for the in-person and virtual attendees. The summit’s keynote speaker for Day 2 was Maj Gen Linda Hurry, Director of Logistics discussing Persistent Mission Generation, Basing and Logistics Enterprise Strategy, Sustainment Strategic Framework, Leadership, Innovation, Theory of Constraints, Family and Culture and ended with a highly interactive Ask Me Anything session.
CMSgt Robert Rafferty, CMSgt Joshua Haubold, CMSgt Mary Ryan, and CMSgt Greg Bush, the Enlisted Career Field Managers for the 2A/2R community provided updates on manning levels, maintenance readiness, MCA initiatives, the Future Maintainer concept, and modernizing training and proficiency of maintainers.
Col Ryan Bakazan, Commander, Supply Chain Operations Wing, briefed on Aviation Support Equipment progress and Equipment Warfighter Support visits his team is conducting globally.
Lt Col Christopher Clark provided an overview of the professional continuing education courses AFIT/LS offers to build competencies that support persistent mission generation and organizational performance. Want to learn more? Contact AFIT/LS at afit.ls.educationsupport@us.af.mil or www.afit.edu/LS.
Major Dan Brown moderated a General Officer panel with Maj Gen Cauley von Hoffman, Maj Gen Linda Hurry, and Brig Gen Lyle Drew.
Ms. Jennifer Burnett, Logistics Management Specialist, 635th Supply Chain Operations Wing (SCOW), provided an update on Repair Network Integration to the field and held a discussion on CAP2 data.
The HAF A4LM Staff provided updates to the field from the Weapon System Team by Lt Col Danielle Sands, Maintenance Policy Team led by Mr. John Wright, and 21A Officer Force Development led by Lt Col Carrie Kerner.
Col William Maxwell discussed Maintenance Organizational Structure changes with A-Staffs, and other constructs and Lt Col Joshua Downing provided an update on Dover AFB’s Mission Generation Group construct to the field.
Day 3 kicked off an open Q&A to hear concerns from the field leaders followed by a Keynote address, and a facilitated exercise and discussion about Maintenance culture.
Lt Gen Tom Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection, provided Keynote remarks remotely on various topics facing the Air Force and the maintenance community and took Q&A from the audience.
Lt Col Jonathan Izworski and Lt Col Tiffany Arnold from the Leader Development Course facilitated an exercise and conversations specifically addressing Maintenance Culture with the officer and enlisted leaders from the field.
Col William Maxwell and the enlisted career field managers discussed Maintenance Culture, training, modernization, and development of maintainers.
As we look forward to 2023, the Logistics Officer Association is excited to continue building on the collaboration that started at the Air Force Maintenance Leader Summit and invite the community to join us at the annual Logistics Symposium (#LOA2023), 28-31 March 2023, at the St Louis Union Station.
Our theme for #LOA2023 is Mission Generation Under Attack.