The Air Force nominated two rising stars to lead its new Air Force Information Dominance Systems Center and its new Nuclear Systems Center. If confirmed, both will also become lieutenant generals.
The Air Force picked Maj. Gen. Luke C.G. Cropsey, who has been leading development of the Air Force’s next generation battle management solution, to lead the Information Dominance center, and Maj. Gen. Mark B. Pye to command the Air Force Nuclear Systems Center.
The new centers will both report to Air Force Materiel Command, which is being reorganized as as part of a servicewide “re-optimization” for great power competition.
The Information Dominance Systems Center will be responsible for developing and acquiring systems used in command, control, communications, battle management, cyber technology, electronic warfare, and digital infrastructure. Cropsey is a natural choice, having served the past two years as the Department of the Air Force’s integrating program executive officer for C3/BM. In that role, he is responsible for building out the Air Force’s contributions to Joint All-Domain Command and Control, a warfighting concept intended to connect sensors and shooters all around the globe.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has called Cropsey’s current job “one of the hardest” in acquisition. Since his appointment, Cropsey has become a leading figure shaping the service’s battle management modernization plans. He earned his second star only recently, pinning it on less than six months ago.
The Nuclear Systems Center will expand the existing Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, taking on the additional responsibility for a new program office for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Currently led by a two-star, the expansion includes upgrading the command to three-star level. The center will oversee the Air Force’s extensive nuclear modernization programs, including the the over-budget and behind-schedule Sentinel ICBM and the secretive Long-Range Stand-Off nuclear missile.
Pye, a B-2 pilot and weapons officer by trade, would, if confirmed, lead that center and also serve as the Department of the Air Force’s program executive officer for Nuclear Air Delivered Systems and the Nuclear Materiel Manager. Currently in his third-straight Pentagon staff assignment, he is director of programs under the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs.
In prior assignments, Pye commanded a B-2 squadron, served as vice commander of the 53rd Test wing, and led the Air Force Inspection Agency.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated Dec. 6 to clarify that the B-21 bomber program will not be under the Nuclear Systems Center.