JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – The topics have been selected and the chairpersons will be on board this month.
What remains is determining who will fill the ranks of the four Mission Area Working Groups charged with tackling some of the Air Force’s biggest Agile Combat Support challenges at the 4th Annual Installation and Mission Support Weapons and Tactics Conference in April 2020.
“We’re gathering the brightest minds from across the force to help us develop innovative solutions for today’s warfighter challenges,” said Brig. Gen. Stewart Hammons, director of expeditionary support and innovation at the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, whose directorate plans and conducts the conference. “We provided more than 30 recommendations to the Air Force as a result of our previous three I-WEPTACs, such as the combat support wing concept and development of multi-function Airmen.
“These and others are innovations that can deliver a more lethal and ready force as they’re further developed and fielded, and we look for more of these game-changing solutions to come out of I-WEPTAC 2020.”
I-WEPTAC leverages the expertise of Airmen on cross-functional teams who study and develop courses of action for specific mission topics. I-WEPTAC 2020 topics are:
• Installation Air Base Air Defense
• Passive Defense Tactics, Techniques and Procedures
• Right Size the Foundation: Optimize Base Operating Support for the Air Force We Need
• Leveraging Contracting and Logistics to Enable Agile Operations
The theme for the 2020 I-WEPTAC conference is Targeted Agile Combat Support … Offsetting Risk. Working group members will convene early in the new year to research and develop solutions to the topics that were selected by a panel of general officers and senior civilians. They’ll present their recommendations April 8 at outbriefs attended by Air Force senior leaders, mission support group leaders and Airmen from across Joint Base San Antonio.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein attended I-WEPTAC 2019 and lauded the teams for their presentations.
“That was spectacular,” he said at the conclusion of the outbriefs. “It’s the kind of thought we need to design the Air Force of the future in alignment with the National Defense Strategy. I couldn’t be happier and I am leaving as a believer in this process.”
I-WEPTAC was established as the only innovation forum for the installation and mission support community a year after more than 150 I&MS capabilities centralized at AFIMSC. Because of the Center’s mission execution across the entire Agile Combat Support enterprise, I-WEPTAC was a natural extension of that mission in support of commanders and Airmen in the field. Learn more at www.afimsc.af.mil/News/I-WEPTAC-2020/.