New directorate merges information technology

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. C. Todd Lopez
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  Air Force leaders marked the standup of an organization designed to be the single focal point for information technology policy formulation and execution to best integrate current technologies.

This helps meet the Air Force chief of staff’s vision of "shortening the kill chain," which refers to the series of events leading from identification of a potential target to the ultimate destruction or "kill" of that target. The target could be a building, a cave, a convoy or a communications tower.

Three existing Air Force IT organizations were merged May 10 to create the Office of Warfighting Integration and Chief Information Officer, or SAF/XC. Those organizations included the Deputy Chief of Staff, Warfighting Integration; Air Force Chief Information Officer and the Directorate of Communications Operations.

"Clearly what you will see out of this organization is a single source for information technology in the Air Force, from policy formulation to execution," said Lt. Gen. William T. Hobbins, chief of the new organization.

Creating this single source for information technology was important because information and communications superiority are critical to winning the nation's wars, said acting Secretary of the Air Force Michael L. Dominguez.

"From the simple black telephone on everybody's desk to the flying bundle of fiber optics we call the F/A-22 (Raptor), communications and information are absolutely essential to everything we do," he said. "Our mission is to fight and win the nation's wars as an integral part of the joint force, so it makes sense to merge the functions most responsible for integrating communications and information for warfighting effects."

The new organization consists of three directorates: policy, planning and resources; operations and support integration; and information, services and integration.

General Hobbins said the new organization brings responsibility for performance of as many as 233 functional activities under one umbrella group.