AFSAC welcomes new director; familiar face returns

  • Published
  • By Jonathan Tharp, AF Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio –The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s (AFLCMC) Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate (AFSAC) welcomed a new director. Brig. Gen. Luke C.G. Cropsey assumed leadership of the organization in a recent change of leadership ceremony held at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Club.

“It is an honor to be the director of AFSAC, an organization that plays a critical role for advancing national security for the U.S. and our allies,” said Cropsey. “There’s no other place like it in the Air Force, and the AFSAC team is amazing.”

Cropsey replaces Brig. Gen. Brian Bruckbauer who retired from the United States Air Force in August 2021.

Prior to his current assignment, Cropsey served as the Senior Military Assistant, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. In this role, he supported and advised the Assistant Secretary in leading and managing the Department of the Air Force’s $60 billion a year acquisition portfolio, encompassing more than 550 programs and breaking barriers to advance new, innovative acquisition approaches to equip the Air Force and Space Force with the capabilities required to win against great power competition.

A career engineering and acquisition professional, Cropsey served in a variety of highly technical and strategic leadership positions within the Department of Defense’s system engineering enterprise, providing technical expertise in efforts forming a strategic hedge against the re-emergence of great power competition, and co-leading the strategy and implementation for the transition planning of the most complex weapon system handoff the Department of Defense has ever executed between two nuclear weapon systems.

He also has the unique experience of serving as a Materiel Leader at AFSAC spanning August 2011-July 2013, nearly a decade prior to becoming the AFSAC Director in August 2021. During his initial AFSAC tour he helped re-architect FMS processes as AFSAC transitioned from a center to a directorate within AFLCMC as part of the 2012 Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) 5-center construct consolidation.

As AFSAC director, he leads a directorate charged with providing security assistance and cooperation to international partners and administering the Air Force Materiel Command’s more than $225 billion Foreign Military Sales (FMS) portfolio spanning over 3,200 FMS cases for 116 countries and NATO agencies. FMS cases range from complex airpower weapon systems like the F-35, F-16, and MQ-9B to facilities and infrastructure, logistics systems, spare parts, and more than 115,000 standard and non-standard supply actions annually. He is also dual-hatted as the director of AFMC International Affairs (AFMC/IA).

“AFSAC works behind the scenes doing critical work building relationships with our international allies and developing government-to-government agreements that form the foundation for military interoperability and global coalitions,” he said. “It’s an honor to be part of an organization that makes a huge impact on the security of our nation and global partners.”