“The AFMC Integrated Development Office has been postured since its stand-up on Oct. 7, 2024 to closely collaborate with the USAF’s force design, requirements, and programming functions regardless of their organizational constructs, and has been tightly coupled with the Integrated Capabilities Command ... since its inception,“ the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) said in a statement Wednesday.
The overall decision — doing away with the Integrated Capabilities Command — reverses plans drafted by previous Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on reorganizing the service to face China and Russia.
Some national reports have said an expected new U.S. national security strategy will focus more on protection of the American homeland and the Western Hemisphere.
The standup of the Integrated Development Office as the planning and execution arm for the new Integrated Capabilities Command had been among the biggest changes for AFMC, which is headquartered at Wright-Patterson.
But now, rather than establishing a new major command, the functions of the Integrated Capabilities Command will be woven into the Air Force Futures Office, also known as “A5/7,” no later than April 1, 2026, according to a new directive from current Air Force Secretary Troy Meink.
“This restructuring will accelerate the delivery of combat power, improve efficiency, and shorten the decision timeline,” Meink said in a statement.
This decision speeds decision-making, decreases spending, eliminates duplication of effort and more, the new Air Force statement said.
The new Integrated Development Office, or “IDO,” expected to have about 200 people, primarily from existing AFMC organizations.
All of those positions were attached to Wright-Patterson. But only about 60 of them were filled about a year ago, Amanda Gentry, the director of the the IDO, told the Dayton Daily News last year.
Gentry came to the IDO job from a previous assignment as director of the Sensors Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), which is also headquartered at Wright-Patterson.
“I’m excited to be part of the IDO. I think it represents a huge leap in our ability to deliver capability to the warfighter,” Gentry said last year. “It’s not simple though. It’s a complex portfolio. We need to make sure all our systems are integrated, and if we get this right, we are going to change the Air Force.”
About the Author
