Dayton Business Journal...
Wright-Patt to net 350 jobs after restructuring
by Joe Cogliano, Senior Reporter
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base appears to have fared well during the latest streamlining efforts. 

Officials said the base will post a net gain of more than 350 positions when the dust settles on a restructuring effort announced Wednesday. 

Air Force Materiel Command will consolidate its 12 centers into five, two of which will be based at Wright-Patt in Dayton. Wright-Patt will house a Life Cycle Management Center focusing on acquisition and will continue to be headquarters for Air Force Research Laboratory. 

The remaining three centers will focus on testing, sustainment, and nuclear weapons. 

Facing looming budget cuts, and looking to put more resources into key areas, AFMC has been under pressure to trim civilian personnel to fiscal year 2010 levels. Civilians make up more than 70 percent of AFMC - the highest percentage among all Air Force major commands - and it employs 40 percent of the total Air Force civilians. 

The restructuring effort is expected to generate $109 million in annual savings for AFMC, which is headquartered at Wright-Patt, while improving management and lines of communication, officials said. It is slated to be implemented by Oct. 1, 2012 and is part of variety of efficiency initiatives across the Air Force. 

“We owe it to the warfighter and the American taxpayer,” said Gen. Donald Hoffman, commander of AFMC. “In these times of tight budgets, our success will depend on a fundamental change in culture across our command. This is an opportunity to do things better and replace a culture of perceived endless money with one of efficiency, savings and restraint.” 

Over the next two fiscal years, Wright-Patt is losing nearly 390 positions - in areas such as installation support - but adding more than 700 hundreds jobs related to improving processes such as acquisition and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance capabilities. 

Click here to read the official release. 

Jeff Hoagland, president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition    , said the announcement shows the importance of Wright-Patt to the Air Force Material Command as well as to the national defense. 

“First and foremost, I would like to applaud the hard work from the Dayton region and our leaders in the last BRAC process that helped position Wright-Patterson Air Force Base then, today and into the future,” Hoagland said. “Our community’s strategic efforts center on the value of efficiencies of research and acquisition. The Dayton Region is well positioned in this environment.” 

To read an overview of how the BRAC process played out at Wright-Patt, click here. 

The new Life Cycle Management Center will replace Aeronautical Systems Center and oversee activity at what is now the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. and Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. 

Earlier this year, AFMC instituted a hiring freeze - ahead of an Air Force-wide mandate - and began surveying civilian workers to gauge interest in voluntary early retirement and separation incentive programs. 

In total, the Air Force has been working to eliminate 3,100 positions and, at the same time, add 5,900 positions in high-priority areas. To accomplish that, it eliminated 9,000 positions by finding efficiencies using targeted cuts designed not to affect critical missions, officials said. 

The Air Force must still cut an additional 4500 civilian positions to reach its target of getting back to fiscal year 2010 levels. AFMC will not be the only major command affected. Air Force-wide, local leaders will be sharing the results of the civilian manpower adjustments with their workforces over the next several days. 

“We’re making every effort to use voluntary measures to achieve reductions wherever possible,” said Gen. Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, in a statement. 

AFMC has more than 10,000 Dayton-area civilian employees and about 65,000 across numerous U.S. Air Force bases. It has a total workforce of more than 85,000. 

In total, Wright-Patt employs roughly 27,000 people, including about 12,000 civilian workers. There are tens of thousands more defense contractor employees in the Dayton region because of the base. 

Wright-Patt has an annual economic impact on the Dayton region of more than $5 billion. 

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