There are three subjects that have the attention of the new head of Air Force Materiel Command, Gen. Bruce Carlson, and he says, “you won’t hear me talk about much more than those.” On a recent visit to the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee, Carlson said the topics are: people, core missions, and continuous process improvement. He says AFMC has no clear means to replace a graying workforce across the command or to adequately train new accessions into depots. He says the command has to “work on that.” And, he says, AFMC will use continuous process improvement “as a lens to focus” its technology development and system fielding, testing, and sustainment. Doing that, says Carlson, will enable AFMC to “figure out how to make things better, quicker, cheaper, and more effectively.”
While the Space Force is still making long-term plans to establish high-fidelity live and virtual test and training ranges in the coming years, officials say they're also working with operators to identify near-term gaps and quickly field capabilities to address them.
