JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- Mission area working groups delivered proposed solutions for how installation and mission support equities fit into the Air Force’s new force presentation model and how to best build combat-resilient installations at the 2023 Installation and Mission Support Weapons and Tactics Conference held here Oct. 4.
Hosted by the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, I-WEPTAC is an annual innovation forum that leverages the expertise of Airmen and Guardians on cross-functional teams, called MAWGs, that study and develop courses of action to solve agile combat support challenges.
This year’s conference focused on the theme “Shaping Force Presentation, Generation, and Installation Combat Resilience" and included these topics: Reconfiguring Garrison Installation and Mission Support to Enable AFFORGEN Implementation; Focusing Expeditionary Combat Support Capabilities in the AFFORGEN Deployment Model; Combat Support Training Ranges - Providing Regional Readiness Training and Expeditionary Combat Support Certification; and Andersen Air Force Base Combat Resilience Master Plan.
“These are topics that are at the forefront of senior leader thoughts on force presentation and near-peer competition,” said Lt. Col. Michael Askegren, AFIMSC Innovation and Improvement Division chief and this year’s I-WEPTAC “Air Boss.” “The first three topics deal directly with the Air Force Force Generation model and how the I&MS community fits in that model.”
Lt. Col. Ross Dotzlaf, chief of facility sustainment, restoration and modernization in the AFIMSC Installation Support Directorate and chair for MAWG 1, said his team’s efforts will help the DAF understand the challenges AFFORGEN implementation could have on garrison operations and inform solutions that may mitigate negative impacts to the mission.
“Installations serve as the platforms from which our Air and Space forces project the five core missions, and the new AFFORGEN model will present challenges to our ability to deliver support to our installations,” Dotzlaf said.
The fourth MAWG dealt exclusively with how combat resilience can be incorporated into the rebuild of Andersen AFB, Guam, after Typhoon Mawar hit the island in May.
“Combat resilience is vital in ensuring full-spectrum mission capabilities at our critical power-projection platforms,” said Maj. Zachary Schumann, Operations Flight commander at the 11th Civil Engineer Squadron, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, D.C., and MAWG 4 chair. “Resilient infrastructure and facility systems are an integral component of our ability to compete, deter and win in a high-end fight.”
I-WEPTAC MAWG recommendations have been innovating Air and Space Force resourcing, planning, strategy and policy, since the conference’s inaugural event in 2017.
“MAWGs are powerful tools to dive deeply, or sprint, with a supremely talented pool of people from different functional backgrounds to focus holistically on particularly vexing problems for our Air Force,” said Maj. Gen. Adrian Spain, director of training and readiness in the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Directorate at the Pentagon. “And this year is no exception.”
The teams’ efforts are deeply connected to the work Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has asked the force to accomplish this fall in terms of optimizing the DAF for the current and future strategic environment, he added.
“The detailed analysis and recommendations provided will be immensely helpful for the I&MS team, as well as the broader Air and Space forces, in terms of giving senior leaders granular insight into challenges of implementing some of the AFFORGEN concepts and constructs from the mission support perspective,” Spain said. “Senior leaders are clearly tuned in to the work they have done and will be able to lean on this analysis and these teams going forward to strengthen the foundation of the choices facing our services now and in the future.”
More than 80 military and civilian Airmen and Guardians comprised the four MAWGS at this year’s conference.
“Every year we leverage I-WEPTAC to ensure we in the I&MS community are in line with what our DAF senior leaders need,” said Maj. Gen. John Allen, AFIMSC commander. “We had a very productive I-WEPTAC this year and, while the conference closed today, the work continues tomorrow.”
For more information about I-WEPTAC and to view this year’s out-briefs, which will be posted early next week, visit the I-WEPTAC 2023 website.