Transition of the B-52 Bomber From SAC to ACC: A Case Study of Transformation

When the Cold War ended, significant changes in the global security environment prompted US military leaders to change the structure and culture of the fighting forces. For the Air Force, budget cuts, base realignments and closures, and personnel and materiel cutbacks encouraged force shaping plans to dissolve Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Tactical Air Command (TAC) in order to create Air Combat Command (ACC). Today, similar conditions affect transformation initiatives within the Air Force, and General T. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, has charged Airmen to re-examine how the Air Force trains and organizes its fighting forces, its support assets, and its command and control structures. The effort will require innovative leaders to investigate organizational change and develop a cogent strategy to shape the future force. Understanding organizational theory and transformational concepts leads to better transformation decisions for the future force. Knowing a variety of organizational change concepts and types of change strategies helps a leader identify shifts in the environment, design new structures and processes, implement change, and evaluate results. To disaggregate the complex process of transformation and expose useful organizational change practices, this thesis examines the key events and conditions that led to the dissolution of SAC and the creation of ACC. Specifically, this thesis studies the transition of the B-52 force from SAC to ACC in order to explore transformation from multiple perspectives.