In an era of budget cuts, the reorganization marks a more affordable and efficient way to manage the “cradle-to-grave” life cycle of weapon systems, Moore said.
“I can tell you one of the cornerstones of this organization was to be able to operate more cost effectively particularly knowing we were facing fiscal constraints,” Moore said in an interview with the Dayton Daily News.
Moore, a fighter pilot who was the vice commander of the Wright-Patterson headquartered Air Force Materiel Command, will oversee 26,000 employees who manage more than 500 programs across the country. The programs cover aircraft, weapons, engines, munitions and electronic systems.
The Life Cycle Management Center will consolidate work at the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., the air armament center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and aerospace sustainment directorates at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. Tinker also will have a propulsion directorate. The Air Force Security Assistance Center, which handles foreign military aircraft sales, has been renamed the Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate and will remain at Wright-Patterson.
The changes tie in with the AFMC reorganization to consolidate 12 centers into five. The Life Cycle Management Center is one of the five. AFMC eliminated about 1,051 civilian positions with the reorganization and estimates savings of more than $100 million a year.
The Aeronautical Systems Center, which traced its beginnings to 1961, had a “profound history” from the creation of the legendary spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, to the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, to an era of unmanned aerial vehicles, said Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, who presided at the ceremony and is the commander of Air Force Materiel Command.
The gathering also marked the retirement of Owen, a 34-year career officer. The three-star general, a former aircraft maintenance officer, played a key role in both the development of the KC-46 aerial tanker to replace Eisenhower-era KC-135s, and the largest foreign military aircraft sale in history, a more than $29 billion deal to sell F-15s to Saudi Arabia, among other responsibilities.
He and his family will move to San Antonio, Texas.
