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Officials announce restructuring

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Cynthia Anderson
  • Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AFNS) --  Air Force officials announced several adjustments to the civilian workforce. In response to direction from the Secretary of Defense for DOD to stop civilian growth above fiscal year 2010 levels and the need to add 5,900 positions against the Air Force's top priorities, the Air Force eliminated approximately 9,000 positions. These adjustments reflect several initiatives designed to align limited resources based on Air Forces priorities. This process is an ongoing effort to increase efficiencies, reduce overhead and eliminate redundancy.

At Kirtland AFB, 82 positions have been or will be eliminated, but that doesn't directly translate into people since some of the positions designated to be cut are currently vacant. According to Mr. Tom Berardinelli, 377th Air Base Wing Director of Staff, "We will pursue all available voluntary force management measures and continue civilian hiring controls to minimize any potential involuntary reduction measures."

"We can't be successful without our talented and experienced civilian workforce," said Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force. "We are making difficult choices about how to deliberately restructure and posture the force and will continue to look for new ways of accomplishing the mission," said Donley. "We can't afford business as usual."

Upon receiving the Secretary of Defense's 2010 memo directing that civilian manpower costs stay within fiscal year 2010 levels, the Air Force began a comprehensive strategic review of the entire Air Force civilian workforce to determine whether or not civilian authorizations were in the right places to meet mission priorities.

The strategic review revealed several imbalances. Some high-priority areas needed to grow, while some management and overhead functions needed streamlining. These imbalances led to a variety of initiatives focused on realigning scarce manpower resources with the most critical missions.

In particular, the Air Force will grow by approximately 5,900 positions in acquisition, the nuclear enterprise, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and other key areas, while reducing approximately 9,000 positions in management, staff, and support areas.

"We clearly understand the turbulence these and future reductions will cause in the workforce," General Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff of the Air Force said. "We are making every effort to use voluntary measures to achieve reductions whenever possible."
Beginning in May 2011, the Air Force implemented a series of hiring controls and voluntary separation programs designed to reduce overall manpower costs, but these hiring controls did not provide the results required to operate within our fiscal constraints.

"The initiatives announced Nov. 2 represent the next step toward that goal, but there is more work to be done," said Brig. Gen. Gina Grosso, Director of Manpower, Organization and Resources. "The Air Force remains over fiscal year 2010 manpower levels and will continue to develop enterprise-wide solutions to achieve our goals with minimal impact to mission. The Air Force must still define an additional 4,500 civilian positions for reduction."

As details become final, Air Force officials will release information on the next set of initiatives.

Air Force-wide, local leaders will be sharing the results of the civilian manpower adjustments with their workforces over the next several days.

"Civilian manpower adjustments will occur at all levels of the Air Force," Grosso said. "We are focused on shaping the force within our fiscal constraints and are committed to maintaining our long history of excellence as we build the Air Force of the future.

"At this time, we are not sure whether a reduction in force will be necessary," she said. "We are pursuing all available voluntary force management measures to include civilian hiring controls with the goal of avoiding non-voluntary measures. Every vacancy we don't fill brings us one position closer to fiscal year 2010 levels, and reduces the possibility for a RIF."

Given the constrained fiscal environment, Air Force members should expect continued workforce shaping measures affecting military, civilians and contractors, Grosso said.
"We understand the stress caused by uncertainty and will do our best to share information across the workforce as soon as it becomes available," said Grosso.

Providing greater military capabilities, improving readiness and operating effectively in the current fiscal environment is the purpose of an Air Force Materiel Command-wide restructure announced by Air Force officials today.

The restructure will be implemented by Oct. 1, 2012.

AFMC will move away from its traditional, management-staff model, with a center and headquarters staff on each AFMC base. By creating a "lead" center for each of its five mission areas, it will streamline the way it accomplishes its work without harming its ability to perform its mission.

In addition, the restructure better integrates the command workforce.

"We'll approach our business in a more integrated fashion rather than thinking separately about research, test, acquisition or sustainment in a center-by-center, base-by-base mindset.The restructure will drive us to more standardized processes," General Hoffman said.

Under the new structure, the command's acquisition mission will be led by a single organization, the new Air Force Life Cycle Management Center headquartered at Wright-Patterson AFB. The AFLCMC will consolidate the missions now performed by the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson, the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., and the Air Armament Center at Eglin AFB, Fla. These three acquisition workforces will report directly to AFLCMC, eliminating layers of management overhead. Also joining AFLCMC will be the new Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate, formerly the Air Force Security Assistance Center. It will continue its foreign military sales mission from its Wright-Patterson location.

Program executive officers will remain at their respective bases and continue to report to the Under Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition at the Pentagon. Also, the current Aerospace Sustainment Directorate program offices at Robins AFB, Ga.; Tinker AFB, Okla., and Hill AFB, Utah, will align to a respective PEO while mission work remains at these locations.

The command's maintenance and supply mission will be led by the new Air Force Sustainment Center to be located at Tinker AFB. The AFSC will consolidate oversight of most missions now performed at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB; the Warner Robins ALC at Robins AFB; and the Ogden ALC at Hill AFB. Like the current acquisition centers, the three ALC headquarters will stand down and their combined workforce will report to the new AFSC. Each location will continue to operate one of the Air Force's three air depots, to be named the Oklahoma City, Warner Robins and Ogden Air Logistics Complexes, respectively.

Maintenance Wings at each location will stand down and all subordinate groups will directly report to their respective Air Logistics Complex. The current Aerospace Sustainment Directorates will become the Aerospace Sustainment Divisions reporting to their respective Logistics Complex.

The Air Force Global Logistics Support Center headquarters at Scott AFB, Ill., responsible for Air Force-wide supply chain management, will stand down.

The 635th Supply Chain Operations Wing at Scott AFB will align to the AFSC. The 448th Supply Chain Management Wing will become the 448th Supply Chain Operations Wing at Tinker and also align to the AFSC. The 591st Supply Chain Management Group at Wright-Patterson, which was a direct report to the AFGLSC, will stand down and become a Logistics Operations Division.

The command's test mission will also be consolidated. The center for test management will be the new Air Force Test Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., presently the Air Force Flight Test Center. The 46th Test Wing at Eglin AFB, Fla., and the Arnold Engineering and Development Center at Arnold AFB, Tenn., to be renamed the Arnold Engineering and Development Complex, will report to the AFTC, along with the 412th Test Wing, at Edwards.

The Air Force Research Laboratory, headquartered at Wright-Patterson, will continue in its role as the command's center for science, technology, research and development.
AFMC's nuclear support mission will continue to be led by the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M.

All centers will be led by general officers. The AFLCMC and AFSC commanders will each be a three-star general. AFRL, the AFTC and the AFNWC will each be led by a two-star.

The Air Logistics Complexes at Tinker, Robins and Hill will be led by one-star generals, as will the test wings at Eglin and Edwards. The AFSAC commander at Wright-Patterson will become a director and remain a one-star.

AFMC will use all personnel management options available to mitigate impacts on civilian employees, to include using normal attrition and early retirement and incentive opportunities where possible.