Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
9/18/2015
Air Force Global Strike Command remains on track to by Oct. 1 take in an additional 9,500 personnel and 63 aircraft through absorbing the 377th Air Base Wing, along with the long-range strike bomber and B-1 programs, AFGSC Vice Commander Maj. Gen. Michael Fortney said during a speech in Washington yesterday. “There are no showstoppers right now to making the transition,” Fortney said during the Minot Task Force 21 conference on Capitol Hill. “It’s going to happen at the end of the month.” Currently, Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) oversees Kirtland Air Force Base’s (N.M.) 377th, and Air Combat Command (ACC) manages the LRSB program and the conventional B-1s, which are all stationed at Dyess (Texas) and Ellsworth (S.D.) AFBs. All units will remain at their current locations after the organizational realignments take effect.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced the 377th transition in December, with the aim to streamline support for nuclear-weapon installations and free up AFMC to lend product and modernization support to a new two-star position combining the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center (AFNWC) and Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s (AFLCMC’s) Program Executive Office for Strategic Systems (SS). This merger is also slated to complete by Oct. 1. Maj. Gen. Scott Jansson started as SS program executive officer this spring, and will begin his dual assignment as AFNWC commander pending the transition of current commander Maj. Gen. Sandra Finan to her next assignment as special assistant to Air Force Assistant Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein.
The Air Force in April announced the bomber program realignments, intended to consolidate all such aircraft under one single mission. AFGSC has met with specially formed transition teams from parent commands of the 377th, the B-1, and the LRSB, to learn what resources and training the personnel and the aircraft need, and the command this week met with stakeholders to check up on the status of every line item related to the merger, AFGSC spokesman Lt. Col. John Sheets said. “It crosses different functional stovepipes.” The command is also hiring a contractor for B-1 advice, and to familiarize relevant AFGSC personnel with the aircraft, he said.
So far, communication between AFGSC and the other commands has been great, Sheets said. “We’ve had their people come out to Global Strike Command; we’ve sent our people back there,” he said. “We’ve had that cross-talk, and ultimately it comes down to us being part of the same Air Force.”
