AFSO 21: Airmen develop rapid deployment tactics for operational airfield support

Published Dec. 8, 2009
By Bekah Clark
Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Airfield support experts gathered at Air Mobility Command headquarters here to develop a standardized method to build and sustain expeditionary airfield operations in austere locations using the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century, or AFSO 21, eight-step problem-solving process.

AFSO 21 is a discipline being taught throughout AMC in hopes of improving the efficiency of support to the warfighter. The eight steps are: clarify and validate the problem; break down the problem and identify performance gaps; set improvement target; determine root cause; develop countermeasures; see countermeasures through; confirm results and process; and standardize successful processes.

Using the AFSO 21 process, a group of Airmen from a variety of commands and functional areas successfully developed a way-ahead to standardize expeditionary airfield operations.

In order to meet operational requirements, air traffic control, airfield management, airfield operations officers, airfield systems and civil engineering personnel within contingency response groups are deploying in non-traditional roles.

The CRGs deploy cross-functional teams to rapidly open forward operating airbases in expeditionary environments for combatant commanders anywhere around the world.

In addition to establishing safe, reliable air traffic control, communications, and emergency services like aeromedical evacuation and fire and rescue response, they also mentor and advise a host-nation's military on building an interoperable partnership.

"We are taking air traffic controllers who are trained to work on established air force bases and putting them in an expeditionary role normally fulfilled by combat controllers," said Lt. Col. Todd Miller, Air Force Special Operations Command liaison to AMC, who participated in the event. "In order to do that most efficiently they need additional skills, and policy and direction on how to do that hasn't been determined yet."

Operations like irregular warfare and counterinsurgency may not require a fully established air base; rather, they may require a lighter infrastructure and capability footprint that enables coalition and host nation aircraft to operate safely in the expeditionary environment until the mission is complete.

"This expanded air traffic capability enables the CRG to open and operate expeditionary airbases using existing organic resources which is a fundamental CRG operation concept," said Col. Steve Jordan, chief of expeditionary mobility operations for AMC. "This effort also perfectly aligns with plans to add more personnel and equipment to the CRGs to support additional building partnership missions."

One of the main keys to solving the issue is teamwork, said Maj. Tammy Abbett, chief of air traffic control and airfield management contingency operations for AMC and the overall team lead for the event.

"In order for us to employ this capability, we have to have a team concept that involves multiple career fields, not just one," Major Abbett said. "The team will allow AMC to bring the same competency into theater under the CRG construct which AFSOC traditionally provides. We can't move forward without Air Force Special Operations Command's combat controllers input. Having the help of those folks at the headquarters Air Force level and at the training level is what we need to develop this capability. Without them we won't be effective."

The AFSO 21 construct brought all of the players together to use a process by which they collectively gathered all of the issues and details, break them down into workable pieces, and move forward, with focus and deliberate action, to completion and correct the problem, said Chief Master Sgt. Athena Cody, AMC's Air Traffic Control Functional manager, and one of the meeting's team leads.

Additionally, she said that AFSO21 has built in continuity because everything is documented, which allows a roadmap to be passed along when personnel move on.

"While we still have a ways to go, this was a pioneering first step. The AFSO21 construct made it possible for a group of individuals with vastly different backgrounds and viewpoints to develop a critical AF skillset," said Col. Tim Grosz, assistant director of operations for AMC, who was representing Maj. Gen. Brooks Bash, director of operations for AMC, the process owner for the event.

"This groundbreaking effort will put us on the right track for implementing an expeditionary airfield ops capability," he said.

AMC has six CRGs which fall under two CRWs - the 615th at Travis AFB and the 621st at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. United States Air Forces in Europe, Pacific Air Forces, the New Jersey Air National Guard, and the Kentucky Air National Guard also have CRGs.

Participating in the event were airfield operations representatives from Headquarters Air Force; the United States Air Forces in Europe; Pacific Air Forces; Air Force Special Operations Command; AMC, the 615th and 621st Contingency Response Wings from Travis AFB, Calif., and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.; and the Kentucky Air National Guard.