An Aug. 6 memo from the office of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth identified that office. In September, the Dayton Daily News reported the memo, which proposed the nomination of an O-10 or flag officer — equivalent to a four-star general in the Air Force — to oversee the delivery of critical weapons, with authority over the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, the AFLCMC Development Office and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.
Credit: SSgt. Stuart Bright
Credit: SSgt. Stuart Bright
The position must be confirmed by the Senate.
The Life Cycle Management Center is based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, with nearly 10,000 employees.
White is serving today as military deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
Before his current job, White was the program executive officer for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft at the Life Cycle Management Center, at Wright-Patterson.
White’s Air Force biography shows in all five assignments at Wright-Patterson in a career that began in 1997.
A Pentagon official told the Dayton Daily News in September that the department was still working through details and the implementation of the new major weapons systems office, “but the plan is for the workforce to remain where it is.”
This official noted that the memo — which had not been formally made public — calls for “administrative management” for major weapons systems to remain with AFLCMC, the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, the Army Corps of Engineers and similarly situated commands.
While AFLCMC will still provide administrative management, program executive officers would report to the newly nominated O-10 instead of the service acquisition executive, this official said.
The new general — called the “DRPM-CMWS” for Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager-Critical Major Weapon Systems — would possess “major decision authority,” and could, if authorized, act as the senior procurement executive overseeing weapons systems, the memo said.
Hegseth recently announced steps to reorganize how the military develops and acquires weapons.
“Speed to delivery is now our organizing principle,” Hegseth said earlier this month in an address the National War College in Washington. “It is the decisive factor in maintaining deterrence and warfighting advantage.
“Rebuilding our military and reestablishing credible deterrence demands the Department of War (DoW) put our Acquisition System and Enterprise on a wartime footing and dramatically accelerate the fielding of new technology and advanced capabilities to maintain the military superiority of our armed forces,” a Nov. 7 memo from the secretary’s office says.
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