AFGSC continues progress on Force Improvement Program initiatives

Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs

5/28/2014 - BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Air Force Global Strike Command is moving forward with a series of initiatives under its Force Improvement Program to change and improve the culture of the Airmen who perform the nuclear mission.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, AFGSC commander, is addressing wide-ranging changes recently proposed by FIP, which seeks to mitigate challenges and develop solutions facing the nuclear mission.

FIP is the epitome of empowering Airmen. Airmen at the Air Force's three missile wings identified the most pressing issues, and recommended more than 300 solutions. Ninety-eight percent of those recommendations were approved for implementation.

Some of the approved recommendations include enhancing leadership development, realigning nuclear inspections into the broader Air Force Inspection System, and returning the Personnel Reliability Program to being a commander's program.

Leadership Development
Pulling inputs directly from the field, AFGSC is establishing a clearly-defined and sustainable career path for missileers that emphasizes field operations.

AFGSC is transitioning to a construct that mirrors the aviation community that increases experience and proficiency across the missile operations groups, while also delivering more efficient and effective training and evaluation.

Called "3 + 3", a missileer will spend their initial three-year tour as a deputy crew member and then upgrade to a crew commander. During this first assignment, the focus is on mastering the weapon system by performing the mission in the field. Doing so will give missileers a deeper knowledge base before serving in their second three-year assignment as an instructor, evaluator, and flight commander.

The Air Force will also implement cross-service exchanges and institute leadership development courses for missile crew commanders, instructors, evaluators, support personnel and squadron commanders.

Evaluation and instruction procedures are also changing substantially to clearly distinguish between the two and improve training quality.

"By implementing best practices from the Air Force, training now focuses on providing learning opportunities where critical self-assessment is paramount, and the instruction is tailored to the experience level of each crew," Wilson said. "Evaluation has shifted to a recurring 15-to-18-month cycle -- similar to the aviation community -- and is comprised of a written test, simulator evaluation and field evaluation."

Inspections
Changes to how the Air Force inspects its units are required to enhance the strength and efficiency of the nuclear force.

The Air Force is realigning its nuclear inspection process to shift the focus from continual inspection preparation to a system that recognizes daily field operations excellence.

"This fosters an environment that encourages identifying potential issues early, provides a mechanism for Airmen to report those issues, and empowers the unit to address any deficiencies without lowering the standard," Wilson said.

PRP
The Air Force is also changing the way it manages the personnel reliability program.

PRP is a commander's program used to assess the mental and physical fitness of their nuclear professionals. The program will take a more streamlined approach to remove the administrative burden that the program has become.

For example, an Airman could be automatically suspended under PRP for an off-base dental appointment.
By changing the PRP paradigm, commanders will consider the Airman to be "up" on PRP instead of automatically, "down."

More Work to be Done
AFGSC is using the momentum of FIP to see where improvements can be made with its bomber forces. Like the ICBM FIP, surveys have gone out to Airmen and their families for feedback. FIP teams will visit the bomber bases beginning June 11 and outbrief Wilson and Maj. Gen. Scott Vander Hamm, 8th Air Force commander, later that month.

"I am very proud of the men and women of Air Force Global Strike Command and truly value the great work that our Airmen do every day," Wilson said. "Their dedication has been proven through this grassroots effort that was accomplished by Airmen, for Airmen."