Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves took command of the Space and Missile Systems Center during a ceremony at Los Angeles AFB, Calif., on Thursday. Greaves succeeded Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, who led SMC, the Air Force’s space acquisition shop, since June 2011. Gen. William Shelton, Air Force Space Command boss, presided over the ceremony. Greaves received his third star prior to assuming SMC’s helm. He comes to the center from the Missile Defense Agency, where he served as deputy director since August 2012. It’s not his first stint with SMC; from August 2009 to February 2011, Greaves was the center’s vice commander. Pawlikowski is on her way to her next assignment: military deputy in the Air Force’s acquisition office. The Senate approved Greaves’ and Pawlikowski’s nominations for their new roles in May. (Los Angeles report by Joe Juarez)
The Air Force kicked off one of its biggest exercises this week with the latest edition of Bamboo Eagle, featuring combined virtual and live training scenarios focused on test the command-and-control “nervous system” leaders need to operate on a complex joint battlefield spread over vast distances.
