BES runs systems that run Air Force

  • Published
  • By Daryl Mayer, AFLCMC Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio (AFLCMC) – “Our slogan is ‘We run the systems that run the Air Force moving money, manpower and material.’ So while most maybe don't know we exist. I guarantee you every day we impact them in some form or fashion,” said Richard Aldridge, Program Executive Officer for Business and Enterprise Systems and Director of the Business and Enterprise Systems Directorate at Gunter Annex, Montgomery, Alabama. 
 
The directorate of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center is responsible for systems on the business side of the Air Force including financial accounting, personnel, logistics and acquisition systems.  They also manage the government benefits retirement system for the entire federal government, Aldridge said during an episode of AFLCMS’s Leadership Log podcast. 
 
The bulk of the team is at Gunter, but also have a presence at Wright-Patterson and Randolph AFB in Texas.  Their 1,300 military, civilians and contractors manage about 22% of the business systems in the Air Force meaning 78% of those business tools aren’t under centralized control.   
 
“When we're making changes or we modernize something, all those systems have to talk,” Aldridge said.  “That's really where the bulk of my time and most of my leadership's time is working those gaps and seams between the handshakes of all those systems.” 
 
As the Air Force drives to a digital enterprise, the challenge rises. 
 
The question is, “how we as an Air Force run our business in a better, more efficient way. And yeah, my systems are front and center in that conversation,” Aldridge said. 
 
To hear the full conversation, you can watch Leadership Log on YouTube at https://youtu.be/R6_vBHCk8iE.  You can also listen by searching “Leadership Log” on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Overcast, Radio Public or Breaker.