Robins Air Force Base’s annual requirements symposium – recognized in the past as one of the key events of the year for defense industry – will again be held Nov. 7 and 8 at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry.

For a number of years, the well attended event has given defense contractors a look at current and future requirements across the broad spectrum of weapon and support systems managed and sustained at Robins.

How that will change this year after Air Force Materiel Command realignment is unclear. AFMC, the parent agency for Robins, has reduced its subordinate centers from 12 to 5 and consolidated sustainment and weapon system oversight and decision making at two new agencies in Ohio and Oklahoma.

As a result, the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center and its two-star, major general command position have been eliminated along with the aerospace sustainment directorate. The 402nd Maintenance Wing – the industrial heart of the base – also was renamed the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex.

This year, the two-day event sponsored by the Robins Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Aerospace Industry Committee, will feature presentations by Lt. Gen. C.D. Moore II and Lt. Gen. Bruce Litchfield. Moore heads the new Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Litchfield commands the new Air Force Sustainment Center at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. Also invited to speak, according to the AIC webpage, is Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, U.S. Special Operations Command vice commander.

The agenda will kick off Nov. 6 at the Museum of Aviation with early registration, vendor exhibits and a networking social. Vendor displays will be open from 12 noon to 8 p.m. in the museum’s Century of Flight Hangar. The networking session will begin at 5 p.m. at the same location.

Moore and Litchfield will make their presentations during the Nov. 7 morning session. The afternoon of Nov. 7 and most of the day on Nov. 8 will be devoted to break-out sessions on a broad range of issues and requirements.

Included in the break-out schedule are presentations from the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center and the Small Business Innovative Research office at Robins. Those sessions are designed to school private industry on requirements and procedures for doing business with the Defense Department.

The Nov. 7 and 8 sessions will be held at the Miller-Murphy-Howard Building at the Perry site. Some 450 industry representatives from across the country and several foreign nations attended last year’s event along with several hundred from the Air Force and Department of Defense.