Cropsey replaces Brig. Gen. Brian Bruckbauer, who retired from the U.S. Air Force in August.
Prior to his current assignment, Cropsey served as the senior military assistant, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. In this role, he supported and advised the assistant secretary in leading and managing the Department of the Air Force’s $60 billion a year acquisition portfolio, encompassing more than 550 programs and breaking barriers to advance new, innovative acquisition approaches to equip the Air Force and U.S. Space Force with the capabilities required to win against great power competition.
A career engineering and acquisition professional, Cropsey served in a variety of highly technical and strategic leadership positions within the Department of Defense’s system engineering enterprise, providing technical expertise in efforts forming a strategic hedge against the re-emergence of great power competition, and co-leading the strategy and implementation for the transition planning of the most complex weapon system handoff the Department of Defense has ever executed between two nuclear weapon systems.
Cropsey also has the unique experience of serving as a materiel leader at AFSAC, spanning August 2011 to July 2013, nearly a decade prior to becoming the AFSAC director. During his initial AFSAC tour he helped re-architect foreign military sales processes as AFSAC transitioned from a center to a directorate within AFLCMC as part of the 2012 Air Force Materiel Command five-center construct consolidation.
As AFSAC director, Cropsey leads a directorate charged with providing security assistance and cooperation to international partners and administering the Air Force Materiel Command’s more than $225 billion FMS portfolio, spanning over 3,200 FMS cases for 116 countries and NATO agencies.
FMS cases range from complex airpower weapon systems like the F-35, F-16, and MQ-9B to facilities and infrastructure, logistics systems, spare parts and more than 115,000 standard and non-standard supply actions annually. He is also dual hatted as the director of AFMC International Affairs.
“AFSAC works behind the scenes doing critical work building relationships with our international allies and developing government-to-government agreements that form the foundation for military interoperability and global coalitions,” Cropsey said. “It’s an honor to be part of an organization that makes a huge impact on the security of our nation and global partners.”
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