Maj. Gen. Scott Vander Hamm, 8th Air Force commander, has watched the Force Improvement Program lead to bottom-up changes in 20th Air Force’s ICBM units, and is now seeing FIP teams fan out to his own units for interviews and feedback. Vander Hamm told Air Force Magazine he hopes the process helps articulate both the good aspects of 8th AF culture, and shines light in areas that need further examination. “When I talked to (Air Force Global Strike Command boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson) early on, I asked him if I were the Secretary [and Chief of Staff of the Air Force], I would also want to have a validation of my mission,” he said of the aftermath of the ICBM reforms. “When we do find things, and I think we will because of the nature of the bottom-up approach, … we will put heat and light behind it,” Vander Hamm said. (See also Moving the “Big Rocks” Forward.)
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…