Force Improvement Program benefits AFGSC, Malmstrom Published July 18, 2014 By Airman 1st Class Collin Schmidt 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. -- The Force Improvement Program was put into motion to spark change within the Air Force Global Strike community. It's goal, to highlight critical mission deficiencies within the command and bring rapid, substantial and lasting change. For Malmstrom, one of the first steps toward this progressive change is coming in the form of 216 personnel positions. Requests to fill these positions will begin immediately and will affect ICBM operations, missile maintenance operations, security forces, 40th helicopter operations and mission support. "The 216 personnel positions Malmstrom is receiving is a portion of the more than 1,100 total manning spots that were approved by the SECAF and divvied throughout AFGSC," said Col. Marné Deranger, 341st Missile Wing vice commander. "These positions, coupled with a renewed focus on the Air Force's nuclear enterprise, have provided a better quality of life for the Airmen who operate some of the nation's most important weapon systems." The FIP program isn't solely about personnel but empowering those personnel as well, she continued. "The program is looking at better ways of doing business and pushing decision making responsibility down to the lowest levels. Some of the approved recommendations include enhancing leadership development, realigning nuclear inspections into the broader Air Force Inspection System, and returning the Personnel Reliability Program to being a commander's program." FIP is an aggressive grass-roots feedback platform that began earlier this year. It was designed to quickly provide senior Air Force leaders with actionable recommendations for improvement. Five functional core working groups made up of Airmen from missile operations, security forces, maintenance, mission support and helicopter operations took to the field to conduct one-on-one interviews with 835 of their peers and provided Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, AFGSC commander, and Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, Task Force 214 and 20th Air Force commander, the direct feedback. "I'm really excited about the Force Improvement Program because I trust our Airmen and believe that micromanaging people is not mentoring your people," Weinstein said. "Most of the studies we have done to improve the nuclear enterprise was done by senior leadership pointing down; however, with FIP we had junior people on the team giving senior leadership recommendations. We're also changing the definition of perfection. We need to be perfect as a system, not perfect as individuals. We need to ensure we train people properly by not holding them to a standard that's unacceptable. In the past, if you didn't get 100 on every test, that was a negative. That's not where we need people to be perfect." More than 350 recommendations were submitted up the chain of command. Ninety-eight percent were approved and are in the process of being addressed. Funding for immediate execution is already in process and coming to the base in the form of new launch control center equipment, launch control center refurbishment and crew support items, helicopter support, manpower funding and security forces equipment. "We have redirected $50 million in (fiscal year 2014) funding to address urgent, near-term nuclear sustainment shortfalls by internally reallocating all of the sustainment funds that Global Strike Command can execute (fiscal 2014), as well as $350 million over the future years defense program," said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. "Through the tireless efforts of General Wilson and his team at Global Strike Command we are on our way to correcting some of the systematic issues I observed." Many problem areas identified early on immediately had steps taken to correct the identified systematic issues and are in the beginning stages of full-term recovery. To recap, a few of the concerns Airmen within AFGSC had were... -- Lack of career advancement In response to this problem, the command is transitioning to a 3-plus-3 system where missileers spend their first three years in Global Strike as a deputy crew commander and then transition to a crew commander. From there, they upgrade and spend their next three-year assignment as a flight commander, instructor or evaluator. -- Upgrading of critical systems and equipment To address this concern, money which would otherwise have been spent in different areas of the Air Force was allocated and directed to units within Global Strike in need of additional equipment, systems upgrades and the maintenance needs of systems already in place to perform mission requirements. -- Changes to evaluation and inspection processes To foster a better work environment and focus on learning from mistakes, the monthly testing missileers are required to be proficient was transitioned to a pass/fail grading system to ensure undue weight isn't given to the numerical score of the test. However, the minimum passing score remains 90 percent. Recently, Secretary James also recommended to the Secretary of Defense that AFGSC's leadership position be upgraded to a four-star general from the current three-star rank. With congressional approval, the proposal will take effect over the course of the next several months. As Airmen work hand-in-hand with their leadership to transform the command; positive and lasting results are starting to take shape. The road is long and many things still need to be accomplished, but the men and women who make up the back bone of this organization will not settle for anything less than excellence. Change is on the horizon. For more information on the FIP updates, visit the official AFGSC blog at http://globalstrike.dodlive.mil/.