Cropsey Wants to Keep Things Simple: ‘Complexity … Is Going to Kill Us‘
Aug. 1, 2023 | By Greg Hadley
DAYTON, Ohio—With a striking story and four basic guidelines, the Air Force’s command, control, communications, and battle management czar Brig. Gen. Luke C.G. Cropsey laid out his priorities for industry at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference on Aug. 1.
Cropsey, the Department of the Air Force’s integrating program executive officer for C3BM, is responsible for coordinating the department’s drive to connect sensors and shooters and the ambitious Advanced Battle Management System. The many elements will form the “DAF Battle Network,” the department’s contribution to enabling joint all-domain command and control.
Service Secretary Frank Kendall has called Cropsey’s job “the hardest acquisition job I’ve ever given anybody”—unsurprising given the technological and logistical complexity of integrating every kill chain as some have envisioned ABMS doing. Having spent his first six months setting a course, Cropsey is now out preaching his gospel, in this case an audience of industry and Air Force leaders. His focus, he said, is in making this concept work, not connecting everything.
To convey the idea, Cropsey reflected on his childhood in Africa, where his father was a surgeon. One day, his father asked him to bring a drill, a bit, and a medical textbook to the operating room.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-c3bm-czar-four-simple-principles/
