Air Force Inspection System Case Study

Air Force leaders, at the unit level, have a requirement to evaluate their organizations for risk that would negatively impact their mission. Unfortunately, previous iterations of the Air Force Inspection System (AFIS) focused on compliance with developed guidance instead of encouraging a constant evaluation of risk. During this version of AFIS, it was noted that though an organization may be compliant with guidance, there may be considerable unmitigated risk to the unit’s airman or execution of its mission. This began to present itself in remarkable fashion as nuclear assets were mistakenly transported, gaping holes were discovered in Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) operations and maintenance procedures and retention rates dropped due to unit moral.

At the direction of the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff, a concerted effort was made to develop a system that would identify and prioritize mission risk while still ensuring the compliance of Air Force Wings. This study evaluated the new AFIS system to determine if it does indeed identify those

TIG found “the system to be wasteful, inadequate and unsustainable in the current and future resource environment. Over time, Air Force organizations had created over 100 inspections requiring 350+ inspection days over a five-year span for most wings.”1. Of these inspections, only 20% were conducted by the Major Command (MAJCOM) Inspector General (IG) teams leaving 80% created by different Functional Managers. The TIG also identified that the current system was not providing the AF senior leaders with the appropriate performance data that they required. Lastly, the system at the time did not meet United States Code Title 10 requirements for commanders and IG’s to evaluate and report on the discipline and readiness of their assigned