Air Force Sustainment Center Commander Lt. Gen. Lee K.
Levy II described a sizeable list of Air Force challenges that need small and
large business innovations and insights to solve them.
Chief among those challenges noted by General Levy are:
Keeping old planes flying and modernized; Ensuring industrial aerospace work
continues uninterrupted in more than half-century old buildings; Fighting wars
with “ones and zeroes,” as well as missiles; and a closing technology gap with
peer and near-peer nations such as China and Russia.
The commander said that’s why he needs the best advice,
talents and partnerships he can get involving companies within the defense
industry.
“There has to be the ability for us to collectively
improve our performance, allow for enough profit margin to make it interesting
for you as a company, and give the intellectual capabilities and warfighting
throw weight I need to project power and sustain power over a long duration,
high-end fight,” the general said.
The AFSC commander addressed hundreds of defense industry
contractors, civilian and military managers, scientists and engineers attending
the 11th annual Tinker and the Primes Requirements Symposium in Midwest City.
The Midwest City Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Rose State College
hosted the three-day business and technology networking event.
The Air Force is the oldest, smallest and busiest it has
ever been. AFSC performs depot level maintenance and supply chain operations
both here in Oklahoma and across the globe. Aging infrastructure adds to the
challenge, including facilities such as Bldg. 3001 at Tinker AFB, which was
built in 1942, the commander said.
All of those issues are interconnected in the AFSC’s job
of providing global combat power for the nation, the general said.
“You have to have it all,” the commander said. “How do I
operate all those platforms? How do I sustain all those platforms? How do I
think about what are we going to do to collect all of those requirements, some
provided by commercial firms, some provided by organic Air Force sources, and
present them to combatant commanders very quickly so that we can fight and win
our nation’s wars? That’s what the nation expects from us.”
According to General Levy, growing areas of needs for the
Air Force include software sustainment, additive manufacturing, rapid
prototyping, advanced engine sustainment concepts, and rapid engineering and
technical resolutions.
Tinker has met its small-business contracting goals in the
last three years, but the base “needs to do more” because of the innovation and
entrepreneurship smaller firms bring, the commander said.
“I think small business really is an important engine for
our defense industry,” the general said. “It’s certainly an important engine
for the economy.”
The boost that military installations give to local
economies, such as the $10 billion impact of Oklahoma’s four military
installations, are important for jobs, but also for the tax revenues they
generate, the commander said.
“I’ll tell you why it’s really important to me —because
that tax revenue turns into an educational system,” the general said. “That
educational system is what I’m counting on for tomorrow. And, it is that
education system that will produce young men and women who grow up to be
scientists, technology experts, engineers and mathematicians.”