Brig. Gen. Joseph Lanni makes first visit to AEDC

  • Published
  • By Janae' Daniels
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Air Force Materiel Command's Director of Air, Space and Information Operations Brig. Gen. Joseph Lanni visited Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) for the first time Tuesday.

"I have met some great people," the general said. "The amount and quality of the people, infrastructure and the processes that are used to bring a great product to the customer makes this place a national treasure."

As director of operations, General Lanni is responsible for shaping the work force and infrastructure for operations to test, field and sustain war-winning expeditionary capabilities.

He is also responsible for the command's test policy and resource allocation, flight management; aircraft control services, weather services, command and control operations and plans.

He serves as the headquarters test and evaluation mission area focal point for three Air Force test organizations: Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, Calif.; AEDC and Air Armament Center's 46th Test Wing, Eglin AFB, Fla.

"In a nut shell, I do all the policy, processes, funding and standardization for the three test organizations," he said. "I have a lot to do to ensure the test and evaluation is a robust mission area and is something we use to support the war fighters and support our customers who are primarily the program offices and the Department of Defense."

One of the ways he thinks this can be accomplished is by putting the "E" back into test and evaluation, he said.

"Test and evaluation is really one of those enablers for us to recapitalize the Air Force," he explained. "To bring on new space systems, new aircraft--we are going to need the right people, the right facilities and the right processes to be able to test."

"Also," the general continued, "we are going to be delving into lesser understood mission areas like directed energy and hypersonics--which is right up the alley for Arnold being able to be at the forefront and develop maturing technologies and maturing operational vehicles."

The general feels it is very important to keep test and evaluation robust, well trained and to manage the knowledge within the organization.

One of General Lanni's reasons for visiting AEDC was to gain an understanding of the mission and to help the Command make an important decision regarding AEDC's future.

As most at Arnold have already heard, Air Force senior leaders at command level are considering turning AEDC, the "center," into a test wing in order to provide better test and evaluation service.

"First of all I would say to concerned employees and the local community, we are putting processes in place that outlive personalities of commanders. There will be fair adjudication processes for everything," he said. "Also, the mission area that Arnold is an expert in, there's no one competing with it and there is absolutely no desire to bypass ground testing at the behest of exalting flight testing."

He makes the case that both need to be done and they need to be done smartly.

"As a field-level commander that has an organization that does excellent ground test, one that does excellent flight test and one that does excellent weapons test we have to be able to use all those resources," he said. "There really shouldn't be any angst about us exalting one at the expense of another. They are all important and everybody up and down the chain of command realizes that."

At the end of the day, General Lanni felt he didn't get the full understanding of the interconnectivity of all the test centers until he visited Arnold.

"I thoroughly enjoyed my visit," he said. "I feel I can be more of an informed advocate for AEDC now."

General Lanni was commissioned in 1980 following graduation from the U.S. Air Force Academy. He has served as an operational fighter pilot, aggressor pilot and experimental test pilot. His commands include the nation's only classified Flight Test Squadron and the 412th Test Wing.

He's directed the F/A-22 Combined Test Force at the Air Force Flight Test Center and he served as staff officer for Headquarters U.S. Air Force and the Joint Staff. Prior to his current assignment, he was vice commander at Eglin AFB, Fla. The general is a command pilot with more than 4,600 flying hours in more than 90 different types of aircraft, including the F-22 and numerous classified prototypes.