U.S. Air Force Airmen monitor computers in support of the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) Onramp 2, Sept 2, 2020 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Daniel Hernandez)
AFA 2022 — The Air Force has created a new office in charge of overseeing acquisition for the Advanced Battle Management System program, the service’s contribution to the Defense Department’s Joint All Domain Command and Control concept.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced a new integrated program office for Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management (C3BM), which will be led by Brig. Gen. Luke Cropsey.
Kendall said the Air Force’s previous efforts to modernize its C3BM infrastructure lacked scale and scope. They “have not been adequately focused nor have they been adequately integrated,” he said during a speech at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber conference.
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As head of the integrated program office, Cropsey will “have technical authority over the [Department of the Air Force’s] C3BM enterprise and take the lead in overall architecture and system design, system engineering, configuration management, and interface control,” including on the ABMS program.
With the creation of the new program office, oversight of ABMS will now be split into three areas, with Cropsey leading the procurement of new technology and reporting to Andrew Hunter and Frank Calvelli, the top acquisition officials for the Air Force and Space Force, respectively. Meanwhile, Gen. Jeffrey Valencia and Gen. John Olson will oversee requirements development for the Air and Space Forces, and Hunter will appoint a “chief of engineering who will support the required architecture and systems engineering work,” according to a news release.
The announcement of the C3BM office marks the third time that acquisition leadership for the ABMS program has changed. In 2019, Preston Dunlap was tapped to become the first-ever Chief Architect of the Air Force and was charged to lead development of ABMS through “on-ramp” demonstrations that would allow the service to evaluate off-the shelf technologies or prototypes from industry.
In November 2020, the Air Force tapped the Rapid Capabilities Office to manage ABMS procurement and create the effort’s acquisition strategy. Dunlap would continue to oversee on-ramp experiments, the service stated then.
However, when Kendall became the department’s top civilian leader, he declared an end to ABMS experiments and issued a mandate for the program to deliver capability to the field. Dunlap left the Air Force earlier this year, and his position has not been filled.
Kendall did not state whether the creation of the C3BM office means that the Rapid Capabilities Office will hand over its acquisition responsibilities for ABMS.
Cropsey is currently director of the Air Force’s Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate, but from May 2020 to June 2021 had an intimate view of the ABMS program as the senior military assistant to the Air Force’s top acquisition official.
“Luke Cropsey has demonstrated the strong leadership attributes required to lead DAF efforts to integrate and modernize all C3BM systems,” Hunter said in the news release. “Luke’s charge will be to build the organizational infrastructure to solve the complex systems engineering and integration challenge for C3BM across the DAF and externally, and he will be empowered as the leader to make this happen.”
