Subscribe
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --
Air Force Materiel Command officials announced on Dec. 2 the appointment of Amanda Gentry as the director of the command’s new Integrated Development Office.
Gentry comes to the role from her previous assignment as Director of the Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. However, she has served as the IDO Stand Up Team Lead since March 2024.
Gentry brings 23 years of experience to her new role, leveraging a background in leadership and engineering. Her previous positions include management and technical roles within the Air Force Research Laboratory, F-35 Joint Program Office, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, and the Secretary of Air Force’s Office for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. She has been a member of the Senior Executive Service since 2021.
“I’m excited to be part of the IDO. I think it represents a huge leap in our ability to deliver capability to the warfighter,” Gentry said. “It’s not simple though. It’s a complex portfolio. We need to make sure all our systems are integrated, and if we get this right, we are going to change the Air Force.”
The IDO, which stood up in September 2024, serves as the acquisition partner to the Integrated Capabilities Command (Provisional), and both entities are charged with accelerating capability development via the Air Force’s Great Power Competition re-optimization efforts.
“If you look at all the Air Force re-optimization decisions, I believe the creation of the ICC and the IDO are the most consequential,” said Gen. Duke Z. Richardson, AFMC Commander. “We’re creating the next Air Force, and I don’t know what could be better than that.”
As the inaugural director, Gentry will oversee the office’s daily operations and work closely with Richardson, who is dual-hatted as the IDO’s Capability Development Executive Officer or CDEO. The CDEO, the functional equivalent of a Program Executive Officer, gets his acquisition authorities from the Service Acquisition Executive, and will focus on capability development activities that have not yet been assigned to existing programs or PEOs. The IDO serves as the program office and execution arm for the CDEO.
Headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the IDO supports the entire Air Force enterprise. Working with the ICC (P), the IDO oversees the acquisition portion of capability development for the Air Force. The ICC (P) will lead modernization prioritization efforts, and together, the organizations will identify airpower capabilities and technological solutions to outpace evolving threats.
Once the ICC (P) prioritizes these problems, the IDO works with industry partners, service laboratories, and other stakeholders to develop tangible and affordable solutions. The IDO then ensures the new programs are founded on realizable requirements, proper levels of funding and sound acquisition strategies. This includes aligning them with the Air Force's established standards and architectures to enable faster integration and upgrades across the enterprise.
The IDO organizes its projects into three tiers based on CDEO Decision Authority. This authority allows the CDEO to lead capability development activities across the enterprise, regardless of where the projects are being executed.
The projects in Tier 1 are those that the IDO owns and executes, and the CDEO has acquisition decision authority. Tier 2 includes projects in which the IDO has oversight, but the projects are executed outside the IDO, and the IDO tracks project changes and progress and makes recommendations to the CDEO, who has acquisition decision authority. The projects in Tier 3 are projects executed outside the IDO and the CDEO is not the acquisition decision authority, but the IDO tracks project changes to ensure horizontal integration.
“There will be many projects in Tier 3, and to make sure we’re focused on the right things, we’ve asked the PEOs to provide all the pre-program work they’ve been working on,” Richardson explained. “The other commands are also sharing the capability development work they’re doing so collectively we can ensure the Air Force enterprise is working on things that will allow us to really move the needle.”
The IDO will also be partnering with the United States Space Force and other service partners to develop multi-domain solutions to the challenges facing the Air Force.
As the IDO’s director, Gentry will lead a team of approximately 200 personnel. The office is hiring and expects to be fully staffed by mid-2025.
On Dec. 17, AFMC will host the IDO Stand Up and Appointment to Leadership Ceremony to install its inaugural director and officially acknowledge the organization.
| Date Taken: | 12.06.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.06.2024 12:42 |
| Story ID: | 486840 |
| Location: | WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 21 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, AFMC announces appointment of Integrated Development Office director, by 1st Lt. Sarah Packard, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
