Air Force Materiel Command Headquarters is located in Gilmore Hall, Building 262, Area A. AFMC directs a highly professional and skilled work force of about 77,000 military and civilian employees worldwide. The headquarters mission is to provide the command with policies, processes and resources and to shape the workforce and infrastructure required to develop, field and sustain war-winning capabilities.

The command’s emphasis on “high technology” makes it the Air Force’s largest employer of scientists and engineers. AFMC employs the most Air Force civilians, about 57,000, and has 6,413 officers and 13,498 enlisted people. This work force operates major product centers, laboratories, test centers and logistics centers throughout the United States.

The AFMC mission is to deliver war-winning expeditionary capabilities to the warfighter through development and transition of technology, professional acquisition management, exacting test and evaluation, and world-class sustainment of all Air Force weapon systems. As the Air Force’s largest command in terms of employees and funding, it manages 37 percent of the total Air Force budget.

AFMC researches, develops, tests, acquires, delivers and logistically supports every Air Force weapon and non-weapon system. It fulfills its mission of equipping the Air Force through a series of facilities that foster “cradle-to-the-grave” oversight for aircraft, missiles and munitions. The command’s three product centers, using science and technology from 10 major laboratories develop and acquire equipment such as planes and missiles. AFMC’s three test centers ensure newly developed Air Force products are working appropriately and efficiently, and three air logistics centers provide service and repairs to Air Force equipment already in use. Other developmental and logistical functions are handled in the command’s specialized centers. Finally, aircraft and missiles are “retired” in AFMC’s Arizona desert facility, the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan AFB near Tucson.

AFMC works closely with its customers, the operational commands, to ensure each has the most capable aircraft, missiles and support equipment possible. AFMC also provides support to other U.S. military forces and allies, and handles major aerospace responsibilities for the Department of Defense. That support includes research, development, testing and evaluation of satellites, boosters, space probes and associated systems needed to support specific NASA projects.

Aeronautical Systems Center is the largest of three product centers in Air Force Materiel Command and manages an annual budget of more than $19 billion. With a workforce of more than 11,000 people located here, at Brooks City Base, Texas, and other smaller detachments around the country, ASC is responsible for developing, acquiring, modernizing, and in some cases, sustaining the world’s best aerospace systems and related equipment.