As part of an Installation Command and Control initiative developed during the Installation and Mission Support Center’s worldwide Installation Weapons and Tactics Conference in April, wing commanders were encouraged to lean forward and re-evaluate current IC2 to ensure the defense and protection of their respective installations. As a result, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is one of five pilot bases across the Air Force evaluating necessary mission realignment to better perform the mission.
As part of this evaluation, the 88th ABW will undergo an organizational change that will realign some squadrons to a newly formed 88th Mission Operations Group (Provisional), which will provide consolidated command and control for installation protection/defense.
The 88th Operational Support Squadron and 88th Communications Squadron, currently aligned under the 88th Communications Group; the 88th Security Forces Squadron, currently aligned under the 88th Mission Support Group; and the 788th Civil Engineer Squadron, which includes the base fire department, emergency management and explosive ordinance, will be realigned under the 88th MOG (P) for a test period of 60 days.
These squadrons represent the domains of cyber, land and air protection/defense of the installation. At the end of the test period, the wing will assess the results and determine future courses of action.
The reorganization will provide a clear delineation between “combat support” and “combat service support” functions and will realign “combat support” functions under one roof. For the interim test period, Col. Lori Winn, current Communications Group commander, will become the MOG (P) commander. If the concept proves successful and approved by the Air Staff, future MOG commanders will be from any Air Force Specialty Code, according to Barbara Cerny, 88th CG deputy director.
“The change will be transparent to the average worker within each squadron,” said Col. Tom Sherman, 88th ABW commander, “but will provide a holistic approach to our command and control for installation defense, which must be our number one priority.
“As a warfighting platform with both physical and virtual runways, the “installation enables all mission partner missions and the MOG (P) will protect and defend all domains across the installation,” he added.
The concept for the pilot is scheduled to be implemented by late June and will also be used during an upcoming exercise.
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