The Air Force Historical Research Agency approved the emblem of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, announced center officials on Aug. 21. AFLCMC is the new arm of Air Force Materiel Command that’s responsible for the cradle-to-grave management of the Air Force’s aircraft, communications systems, armaments, and cyber capabilities. The emblem includes a golden globe on a field of blue. Running through the middle of the globe is an upright lance that represents the center’s heritage of developing munitions, said the officials. There is also a pair of lightning bolts nearly encircling the globe symbolizing the center’s electronic systems, including cyber capability. A stylized triangular aircraft cradled at the top of the lightning bolts and lance represents the aircraft systems AFLCMC manages. AFMC activated the center on July 9.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…