U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Commander and Technology Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle announced September 11 that the Transformational Capabilities Office, the group responsible for implementing the transformational component of the Air Force Science and Technology (S&T) Strategy, has reached Initial Operating Capability, a determination that removes its provisional status and establishes the TCO as a permanent AFRL mission organization.
“In the past year, we have gathered enough fact-based evidence to formalize the TCO as the official unit tasked with leading enterprise-level planning and execution of transformational S&T for the Department of the Air Force,” said Brig. Gen. Pringle. “This designation establishes a formal office for accelerating the changes needed to deliver the game-changing technologies our warfighters need now and in the future.”
Moving forward, the TCO will execute follow-on S&T initiatives guided by the S&T strategy to support the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force and further evolve the organizational concept under the guidance of TCO Director Chris Ristich, a member of the Senior Executive Service who also serves as the Director of Strategic Development Planning & Experimentation (SDPE). He aims for TCO to achieve full operating capacity (FOC) by the end of fiscal year (FY) 2021 and be fully resourced by FY24.
Ristich, who reports directly to the AFRL commander in this role, said, “The big picture goal of the TCO is to cultivate leap-ahead solutions that enable the Air Force and the Space Force to dominate time, space, and complexity in all operating domains to project power and protect the homeland.”