KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center has managed the design and construction of weapons generation facilities for Air Force Global Strike Command since 2016.
This new type of facility consolidates the weapon storage, maintenance, generation and training functions required to support the intercontinental ballistic missile and strategic bomber missions.
In October, these facilities were officially established under AFNWC as an Acquisition Category III-level (ACAT III) program office by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition.
Becoming a formal ACAT program managed by a high-performing program office ensures WGFs are an Air Force-level requirement, which means they do not have to compete with local installation projects for priority. ACAT programs typically fall under program executive officers, who are responsible for their cost, schedule and performance. The PEO for nuclear air delivered systems, who is assigned to AFNWC, is now responsible for the WGF program.
“We need to manage the WGFs as a system of systems, similar to the way we manage the Sentinel program, especially since the WGF and Sentinel combined [military construction] efforts are the largest Air Force MILCON bill in history,” said retired Maj. Gen. Anthony Genatempo in 2022, then AFNWC commander and Air Force PEO for strategic systems. In 2024, the PEO for strategic systems split into two separate PEO roles: nuclear air delivered systems and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Retired Maj. Gen. John Newberry, former AFNWC commander and PEO for nuclear air delivered systems, was a major proponent for a WGF program office. During a 2024 groundbreaking for a WGF at Ellsworth, South Dakota, he said the new facilities were designed to streamline support functions for Air Force Global Strike Command assets and replace facilities built in the 1960s and 1970s.
The conditions of the current weapons storage areas add unnecessary costs, said Mohsen Parhizkar, director of AFNWC’s Program Management and Integration Directorate, which oversees the WGF program.
“One of the most important aspects of the new program office designation is it gives the program office the authority and responsibility for the entire lifecycle of the WGF,” Parhizkar said. “As an ACAT III-level program, its decision-making and reporting remain at the PEO level.”
Within the Air Force acquisition world, a program office is a dedicated unit responsible for managing the lifecycle of a specific defense acquisition program, from its initial concept and development through production, deployment, sustainment and eventual disposal.
“The authority conferred by becoming a program office also ensures the longevity of the WGFs,” Parhizkar said. The current WGF plans span more than 70 years, starting with design and ending with long-term sustainment.
“It formalizes the relationship between us and the WGF stakeholders and provides the warfighter with a single manager,” he said.
Those stakeholders include AFGSC, Air Force Materiel Command, Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Naval Facility Engineering Command, the national laboratories, and multiple Air Force installation representatives.
“Before, we were operating with delegated authorities via a memorandum of agreement and a charter. Now, by virtue of being a program office, we have those authorities through Department of War and Air Force directives,” Parhizkar said.
In February 2024, Parhizkar identified the root cause of inefficiencies in the WGF construction process to the AFGSC commander and numerous Air Force senior leaders. WGFs needed a single program office to manage, construct, sustain and protect these critical national assets.
“When I highlighted to the AFGSC commander that we had all the responsibility without the authority, that’s when change happened,” Parhizkar said, referring to Gen. Thomas Bussiere, then commander of AFGSC. “He took our shared cause to the Air Force and helped get us the ACAT authorities we need to match our responsibilities.
“WGFs are not just ordinary buildings on a base, but national assets that are a key part of the capabilities required to ensure safe and effective nuclear weapon systems,” he said. “These weapon systems support the U.S. national security strategy and defense, and their sustainment will now be prioritized appropriately at the Air Force level.
“By combining several functions, modernizing facilities and significantly reducing the required acreage, WGFs will also be more secure and efficient than their predecessors.
“The most important thing is we now have a program office, which is an organization that will take the lead for WGF lifecycle management. That’s something we didn't have with its predecessor, the weapons storage areas, where every installation became responsible for the sustainment, but the same standards weren’t being applied across the enterprise.”
The WGF journey to official program office status began 15 years ago. Read more about the program’s history at https://www.afnwc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3083689/afnwc-directorate-key-to-managing-modernization-of-weapons-generation-facilities/.