Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center

Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center
Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center emblem
Active	1 January 1974
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Direct Reporting Unit
Part of	Chief of Staff, United States Air Force
Garrison/HQ	Kirtland Air Force Base
Decorations	see "Lineage and Honors" section below
Commanders
Current Commander	Major General Matthew H. Molloy
Current Vice-Commander	Colonel Dean A. Ward

Located at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center is a direct reporting unit of Headquarters, United States Air Force. It is the Air Force independent test agency responsible for testing, under operationally realistic conditions, new systems being developed for Air Force and multi-service use.

AFOTEC employs more than 600 military and civilian personnel at its headquarters and five detachments located at Edwards AFB, California, Peterson AFB, Colo., Eglin AFB, Florida, Nellis AFB, Nev., and Kirtland AFB, N.M., and multiple operating locations around the country.

Test teams conduct tests at selected sites; collect, analyze and evaluate the data; and prepare formal reports. The teams are managed by AFOTEC and include personnel from the operating and supporting commands who will eventually employ these systems.

AFOTEC's independent and objective evaluations of how well systems will meet operational requirements provide a vital link between the developer and user. They are key elements of the system acquisition approval process.

Operational tests are designed to address critical issues regarding a system's performance in combat-like environments when operated by field personnel. They seek to answer questions about how safe, effective, reliable, maintainable, compatible and logistically supportable new Air Force systems will be.

The results of AFOTEC's tests, normally conducted on prototype and pre-production models, play an important role in Air Force and DOD acquisition decisions. Test results also identify deficiencies requiring corrective action.

In addition to the study of fielded weapons used in Vietnam, a new Department of Defense leadership team began major reforms when the new Richard M. Nixon administration began in 1969. Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard, the esteemed entrepreneur who favored the "fly-before-buy" approach, and Undersecretary of the Air Force John L. McLucas, who dealt with operational problems with the F-111 and C-5 transport, took the lead in defining a new emphasis on OT&E.

Several government committees, commissions, and agencies studied how to implement acquisition reform, including the benefits of independent operational test and evaluation. Participants in all of these studies, along with an increasing number of Senators and Congressmen, concluded that the developing and using commands had become less impartial about the capabilities of, and need for, their major acquisition programs.

In July 1970, a Presidential Blue Ribbon Defense Panel recommended the creation of an OT&E organization in each service, independent from the developer and user, and reporting directly to the chief of each service. Deputy Secretary Packard quickly started to implement the Panel's recommendations. By November 1971, Congress showed its support for OT&E by requiring that the services submit OT&E results before procuring new systems.