WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Fifteen employees of the Air Force Institute of Technology will be transferred into other jobs on base as AFIT shuts down its Center for Systems Engineering, base officials said Friday.

The transfers are to be done by the end of the federal fiscal year Sept. 30, officials said. The 10 civilian and five military personnel are to be moved into systems engineering and technical support jobs at the Air Force Research Laboratory and Aeronautical Systems Center, both located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The goal is to improve efficiency at Wright-Patterson by moving these employees back into the “front lines” of the base’s acquisition operations, officials said. The Center for Systems Engineering’s primary mission has been to provide consulting expertise to the Air Force acquisition community, base officials said.

The shift is part of the Air Force’s ongoing effort to improve efficiency, cut costs and, in some cases, eliminate positions in response to the Pentagon’s mandate to reduce spending during the next decade.

The Air Force Institute of Technology, located at Wright-Patterson, is the service’s post-graduate school and does technology research.

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