Local event to focus on Air Force’s capability

Around 1,200 people will attend a three-day convention that will address improving readiness and war-fighting capabilities.

For one organization at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, keeping up with technology can mean the difference between winning or losing the next war.

The Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patt — a $238 billion enterprise — is responsible for developing and sustaining the Air Force’s weapons systems.

To do that, the center has tapped into local and small businesses that will be showcased at its fourth Life Cycle Industry Days event at the Dayton Convention Center starting today. Around 1,200 people are expected to attend the three-day convention, which will focus on improving readiness and war fighting capabilities, according to the base.

As the LCMC looks to the future, it’s turning its attention to cyber space, something that will be highlighted during the event, said Kathy Watern, executive director of the LCMC at Wright-Patt.

“That’s a huge growing area as you can imagine,” Watern said. “The way we fight wars is changing a bit.”

If the LCMC was a private corporation, it would likely be one of the world’s top Fortune 500 companies, Watern said.

The center pumps more than $1 billion a year into Ohio’s small businesses, said Tom Zerba, LCMC director of staff. It’s that kind of “tight integration” within the LCMC, Air Force and the business community, Zerba said, that helps the U.S. stay ahead of its adversaries’ weapons systems.

“What’s critical is that next generation technologies are most likely to come from a small business,” Zerba said. “Then the largest (companies), they want to tap into that small business that’s got that great idea that just needs funding to perk it up.”

The Life Cycle Industry Days will feature several panels focused on working with small businesses and the state of weapons systems including fighter and bomber aircraft, among other programs, according to the event’s schedule.

The convention is hosted by Lt. Gen. Robert D. McMurry, commander of the LCMC at WrightPatt. Guest speakers will include Assistant Secretary of Defense for

Sustainment Robert McMa- hon, Gen. Arnold Bunch Jr. who is commander of the Air Force Materiel Command and Gen. James “Mike” Holmes who is commander of Air Combat.

The event, which will take place at the convention cen- ter for the first time, outgrew its previous home at the University of Dayton Research Center. UDRI hosted the convention during its first three years.

The event will serve as something of a “capstone” to the work the LCMC conducts, Watern said.

“It’s an opportunity to bring not only us here at the Life Cycle Management Center, but our industry partners and our war fighters together to open dialogue about new weapon systems innovation,” Watern said.