Odyssey Featured Program

Contributed by Ariella J. Brown, Odyssey Congressional Support Liaison Officer

Lieutenant General Donna D. Shipton assumed command of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) on 22 Dec 2023 with an official Assumption of Command ceremony held at the National Museum of the United States Air Force (USAF) on 17 Jan 24. A few days later, Lt Gen Shipton hosted a virtual All-Call to the Center, providing an opportunity for all to get to know her, as well as ask questions of her and others in leadership, including Executive Director, Mr. Dennis D’Angelo and Deputy Commander, Colonel John Kurian.

During the All-Call, Lt Gen Shipton outlined her approach as being a “top-down thinker,” and how she looks at things from multiple levels before acting on a decision, and that her expectations of all of us from a mission approach is to know that our individual and collective focus should be mission driven and that our “core values and mission should never conflict.” She also stated that she believes in the power of “being humble” and “setting expectations and then owning them.”

During my short time working in the Commander’s Action Group (CAG) with Lt Gen Shipton at the helm and working directly with her and her Front Office Group team, one thing that has stayed with me is her quiet calm demeanor, while also commanding the room. Her approach is humbling, but authoritative. Seeing her lead a meeting and allowing an opportunity to hear from all in the room, regardless of rank or position, is inspirational.

During Lt Gen Shipton’s address at a recent AFCEA event while visiting Hanscom AFB, she spoke on the core of AFLCMC being people and mission focused, and that AFLCMC is all about the capability and about the warfighter.

She also spoke briefly on Great Power Competition (GPC), which was officially rolled out a week later at AFA in Colorado Springs. She noted that, over time we expect to have parity with China by 2027 and that this is one of the reasons we need to reoptimize our systems through Great Power Competition.

To that end, she mentioned that China’s J-20 development to first flight took 5 years, whereas, the USAF F-35 program development took 9 years, and that China has been able to put their program into practice in half the time—also due to replicating USAF aircraft and intelligence. Lt General Shipton emphasized the need to be able to protect our data and our own infrastructure through re-optimization of GPC.

Lt Gen Shipton then detailed the Secretary of the Air Force’s (SECAF) Operational Imperatives, which she noted were still being worked on, but that will be transferred to the field and across the enterprise with an emphasis on horizontal integration across PEOs and programs.

The focus then shifted to AFLCMC’s Strategic Vision around 5 Pillars:

• Why / Purpose: countering competition
• Who / Airmen: military, civilian, contractors through recruiting and retaining talented workforce
• Where / Infrastructure: secure and effective facilities for seamless collaboration, including hybrid work
• How / Digital: aligning digital processes with policies and products with industry standards, and
• What / Integration: strengthening relationships between OT&E and program delivery.

Finally, while the GPC strategy is being rolled out tactically across the Air Force, it was unveiled at AFA on 12 Feb 2024 by SECAF, Frank Kendall, III and others that there will be 24 key decisions to address current efforts to stay competitive.

Core Areas of focus include Develop People, Generate Readiness, Project Power, and Develop Integrated Capabilities.

One of the more obvious changes includes changing the name of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center to the Air Dominance Systems Center, to synchronize aircraft and weapons competitive development and product support.

While we have yet to see how the changes in the day-to-day operations will affect the overall workforce, the mission remains the same, develop and optimize war-winning capabilities and providing the warfighter and airmen with what they need, when they need it.