Lt. Gen. Jason D. Voorheis has taken command of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, a sprawling organization with a $400 billion portfolio, establishing him as one of the service’s top acquisition officials.
Voorheis moves into the job having jumped the rank of major general. As a one star, he was program acquisition executive for command, control, communications, and battle management, or C3BM, the office overseeing the Air Force’s effort to create a massive “battle network.”
Voorheis assumed command of AFLCMC on Aug. 27 during a ceremony at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, according to a release.
In his new role, Voorheis will also serve as the PAE for combat readiness and integrating PAE for mission systems.
AFLCMC has more than 21,000 employees and manages acquisition, upgrades, and support for aircraft, engines, munitions, electronics, and cyber systems. In other words, it’s the nerve center of keeping the service’s critical hardware running.
“Just about every aircraft, weapon system, uniform, and piece of gear our Airmen take into harm’s way is acquired, fielded, modernized, and sustained by the expertise within AFLCMC. You are the engine of our nation’s defense,” Voorheis told the center’s personnel at the ceremony.
Voorheis takes the post following the retirement of Lt. Gen. Donna D. Shipton, who also previously worked as the Integrating Program Executive Officer for Mission Systems.
Brig. Gen. Joshua Williams took over Voorheis’ previous role as the head of the C3BM office on Aug. 28, according to a separate release. The Air Force established C3BM in 2022, and Maj. Gen. Luke C.G. Cropsey served as its first commander, followed by Vorheis, who took over in February. Cropsey now serves as the military deputy to the Air Force acquisition executive in the Pentagon.
In bidding farewell to the C3BM office, Voorheis said his six months in the job included some of the “most rewarding experiences throughout my career.”
“The mission ahead does not pause,” Voorheis added. “Never stop challenging legacy processes that slow down capability delivery.”
The main goal of the C3BM office is to create a DAF Battle Network, an integrated system of systems that links sensor, effector, and logistics systems. With about 50 programs of record, it is the DAF’s piece of the Pentagon’s massive Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control effort, which seeks to connect any sensor, shooter, and logistics node to a shared network across all of the services.
But the three-star’s experience isn’t limited to the DAF Battle Network; he previously served as the program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, the materiel leader for the F-15 program office, and system program director for the B-21 bomber, according to his official biography.
AFLCMC stood up in 2012 as part of an effort to consolidate and streamline operations within Air Force Materiel Command. It is one of six centers under AFMC, trimmed from a previous dozen centers the service operated, to lower costs, improve readiness, increase aircraft production, and reduce parts shortages, Air & Space Forces Magazine previously reported.
The other centers under AFMC are the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, the Air Force Test Center, the Air Force Installation Management Center, and the Air Force Sustainment Center.