ACC leads radical change to USAF fleet maintenance, management

Published April 15, 2025
By Capt. Ridge Miller
Air Combat Command Public Affairs

JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. (AFNS) --

Air Combat Command is leading efforts to overhaul how the U.S. Air Force does aircraft maintenance and fleet management this spring.

“ACC’s most important job is to fly and fix airplanes,” said Gen. Ken Wilsbach, ACC commander. “We must identify new ways and processes that will help ACC radically change the way we do business and maintain our aircraft fleet.”

Managing combat air forces requires a comprehensive understanding of fleet health, identifying constraints and working with key stakeholders to alleviate them.

“It’s not lost on me that our Air Force has taken risk in areas that impact our fleet readiness,” Wilsbach said. “We know there are enterprise challenges that need to be addressed, and our teams are putting in the work to make that happen.”

As part of that process, Brig. Gen. Jennifer Hammerstedt, ACC director of Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection, co-hosted the Air Force A4 Enterprise Council in February at ACC headquarters at Joint Base Langley-Eustis.

“The A4 EC provides an opportunity for leaders across the A4 enterprise to address the most pressing challenges our logistics, engineering and force protection Airmen are facing today,” said Lt. Gen. Tom Miller, AF/A4 deputy chief of staff. “The readiness and lethality of our force is our #1 priority.”

Airplane — An F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 64th Aggressor Squadron conducts aerial refueling with a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 99th Air Refueling Squadron during a Red Flag Tanker Task Force mission in support of exercise Red Flag 25-2 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., March 14, 2025. Red Flag exercises provide aircrews the experience of multiple, intensive air combat sorties in the safety of a training environment. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Kyle Wilson)

A U.S. Airman assigned to the 51st Fighter Wing secures a tow bar to the wheel of an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft at Suwon Air Base, South Korea, March 7, 2025. The 51st Fighter Wing and 11th Air Task Force worked together to land, refuel and store the aircraft in preparation for Freedom Shield 25. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jasmyne Bridgers-Matos) — An Airman assigned to the 51st Fighter Wing secures a tow bar to the wheel of an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft at Suwon Air Base, South Korea, March 7, 2025. The 51st Fighter Wing and 11th Air Task Force worked together to land, refuel and store the aircraft in preparation for exercise Freedom Shield 25. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jasmyne Bridgers-Matos)

An Airman conducts mill machinery training. — Senior Airman Jorge Vidal Alvares, 386th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron aircraft metals technology journeyman, conducts mill machinery training within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, Feb. 28, 2025. This training enhances precision machining capabilities, enabling aircraft metals technology specialists to fabricate and repair critical aircraft components, ensuring mission readiness. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Sarah Ortega Corona)

During the engagement, leaders focused strategic discussions on readiness, agile combat employment and corporate processes to better inform requirement generation. Participants also visited the Navy Maintenance Operations Center, gaining a better understanding on how the Department of the Navy collaborates to resolve fleet-level maintenance issues.

The discussions informed ACC leadership’s approach in designing a new process to improve the reliability of ACC’s fleet.

“The intent with what we’re doing within ACC is to ensure that our wing and numbered air force commanders, as well as the command, are identifying the risk and constraints impacting aircraft availability and our wings’ ability to execute their mission,” Hammerstedt said. “The ultimate end goal is to drive optimal performance at the tactical level and to identify and address the enterprise changes we need to improve readiness.”

Leaders need a comprehensive and simplified picture of fleet health. ACC’s solution?

Readiness Informed Metrics
“We’ve created and are utilizing a formula for capturing our operational requirement, which will measure our fleet,” Hammerstedt said. “The result is a whole number operational requirement for each fleet and flying wing that we can measure to on a daily basis.”

ACC has begun implementing tiered readiness and RIM reviews. These reviews include daily wing ‘stand-up’ meetings and tiered RIM reviews with NAF commanders and COMACC. These reviews are designed to quickly identify and work constraints at the appropriate level, ensuring combat wings are resourced effectively to accomplish their warfighting mission.

“Our approach is pretty simple,” Wilsbach said. “It requires greater command involvement, leadership and accountability at all levels for fleet readiness outcomes.”

Since 2024, ACC has begun implementing these changes at four of its Combat Wings, at JB Langley-Eustis, Tyndall AFB, Seymour Johnson AFB and Davis-Monthan AFB, with plans to implement the use of RIM across the entire command by the end of April 2025.