Global Strike Command on track, its leader says

[ErnstBlofeld]

The Shreveport Times:

 

The Air Force's newest major command, Air Force Global Strike Command, is on track for fall progression to its final stage of standup, full operational capability, its leader says.

 

The new command, in the former 8th Air Force headquarters building on Barksdale Air Force Base, but also staffing temporary trailers across the 22,000-acre facility, celebrated its first birthday here Aug. 7. It began about nine months before its debut as a provisional unit in January 2009 at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C.

 

Since August 2009, Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz says, "we have been developing the command in a very step-by-step methodical fashion. On that first day, Aug. 7, we had roughly 50 permanently assigned individuals. Right now, we have 700 permanently assigned individuals to the headquarters. By Oct. 1, we'll have 800, en route to our full complement of 900 officers, NCOs and government civilians assigned to this headquarters."

Over the intervening months, the command grew by careful steps, assuming and testing command and control avenues that had been used by predecessor commands. On Dec. 1, it assumed control of the nation's intercontinental ballistic missile forces, in three wings in three states under 20th Air Force. On Feb. 1, it took control of the nation's strategic bombing forces, at three bases in three states under the Barksdale-based 8th Air Force.

 

Oct. 1 is the start of the federal fiscal year.

 

"That's a good target goal," Klotz said. "We'll have the vast majority of our people on board, and we'll assume responsibility for our own 'checkbook' at that time. One of the rules of fiscal or financial management in the U.S. government is you can't change ownership of the checkbook in the middle of the fiscal year. Since we stood up or assumed responsibility for the ICBMs and bombers in the middle of the year, we have been working closely with their former parent organizations on the financial side. We'll have that on Oct. 1, and we'll have responsibility for developing our inputs to the future Air Force programs and future Air Force financial plan at that time."