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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — An Air Force restructuring designed to cut costs by eliminating thousands of civilian jobs will actually result in a net gain of 363 positions at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as it becomes a bigger center of acquisition, research and development, officials said Wednesday.
That underscores the importance of Wright-Patterson as the Air Force strives to trim spending and operate more efficiently in response to Congress’ demands to reduce the federal budget deficit, members of Congress and retired Air Force officials said.
It makes sense to have acquisition functions in the same location as research and development efforts , the officials said.
“The recognition of the value in acquisition, life-cycle management, and research and development is very clear and obvious,” said Joe Zeis, vice president and chief strategist of the Dayton Development Coalition, who is a retired Air Force wing commander .
The Air Force Materiel Command, headquartered at Wright-Patterson, will reduce its number of centers across nine bases to five from 12 to eliminate 1,051 civilian jobs by Oct. 1, 2012. The AFMC, which will retain its headquarters at Wright-Patterson, will lose an additional 1,088 civilian positions during that period
because of a system wide Air Force streamlining of base support functions.
Wright-Patterson’s gain will occur during the next two years. It will come at the expense of other Air Force bases that will lose jobs because they won’t be command centers for work the service has identified as a priority. Wright-Patterson is gaining
because of a focus on acquisition, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs, Air Force officials said.
Of the five AFMC centers that will survive, two will be located at Wright-Patterson. The base’s Aeronautical Systems Center, the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., and the Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will report to the new Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson, which will expand the base’s status as an acquisition hub. Employees at Hanscom and Eglin will remain at those bases physically, though they will report to command staff at Wright-Patterson as their local command staffs are phased out.
The current Air Force Security Assistance Center, which handles foreign military sales from Wright-Patterson, will become the Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate, also reporting to the new Life Cycle Management Center.
A lieutenant general currently serves as commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center, which manages and supports Air Force weapons and aircraft programs. An officer at that three-star rank will remain at Wright-Patterson as commander of the new Life Cycle Management Center.
The Air Force Research Laboratory will remain as is at Wright-Patterson, although it is shrinking its current five directorates on base to four by combining the propulsion and the air vehicles directorates into a new aerospace systems directorate. The AFRL, which has five other directorates around the country, will operate
as the AFMC’s new center for technology.
The restructuring is designed to comply with the Pentagon’s 2010 directive to cut civilian employment across the Defense Department to fiscal year 2010 levels. Additional cuts could be forced by the Budget Control Act, Congress’ 2011 legislation to compel cuts in defense and non-defense spending.
Air Force officials said they are striving to avoid any layoffs by offering incentives for early retirement and voluntary departures, but there could be involuntary job cuts as well. A 90-day hiring freeze imposed in August has created vacant positions that will count toward the job cuts, Air Force officials said.
“At this point, we are not sure whether a reduction in force will be necessary,” said Brig. Gen. Gina Grosso , the Air Force’s director of manpower, organization and resources.
“We are making every effort to use voluntary measures to achieve reductions whenever possible,” said Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force’s chief of staff.
The cuts are in civilian employment because military manpower levels are set in the current budget, officials said. The AFMC’s approximately 86,000 employees includes more civilians (about 65,000) than any of the Air Force’s other nine major commands.
The changes are the biggest since the AFMC was begun in 1992 to oversee research and development, testing, management and sustainment of the Air Force’s vast lineup of aircraft and weapons.
Nationally, the Air Force said it is eliminating about 9,000 positions in management, staff and support areas so it can add 5,900 jobs in the acquisition, nuclear weapons, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance areas. Beyond that net loss of 3,100 jobs, the Air Force must identify an additional 4,500 civilian positions to be eliminated, officials said.
The early retirement and voluntary departure program, and the cuts announced Wednesday, will not be enough to get the Air Force down to its 2010 civilian employment levels. More cuts will be devised with a goal of having minimal impact on key missions, senior Air Force officials said.
Losing experienced employees presents problems, said Richard Eckhardt of Beavercreek, who retired from Wright-Patterson in 2002 as AFMC’s deputy comptroller and chief financial officer.
“You worry about a brain drain in experience,” Eckhardt said.
Accomplishing the work force and structural reorganization within a year will be challenging, said Everett Odgers, a retired major general who was AFMC’s comptroller.
“It’ll be a culture change in many places, and those are always difficult,” said Odgers, president of the Greentree Group, a defense contractor in Beavercreek.
Members of Congress said they are pleased that key control functions will remain at Wright-Patterson .
“We do see these changes as strengthening the command roles for Wright-Patt,” U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, said.
Wright-Patterson will be “a leader in helping the Air Force define efficiencies,” U.S. Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, said.
Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, applauded the Air Force’s decision to strengthen major missions at Wright-Patterson.
The base, with about 27,000 employees and a local economic impact of $5 billion annually, is a major cog in the Dayton region’s economy.
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