BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- The Standoff Munitions Application Center welcomed Lt. Col. Benjamin Kempen as its new commander and said farewell to Col. Ryan Gorecki during a change of command ceremony here, July 30, 2025.
SMAC supports the warfighter and enables full-spectrum dominance through integrated planning of lethal and non-lethal joint and multinational standoff fires.
“SMAC as an organization is critical,” said Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, Eighth Air Force and Joint-Global Strike Operations Center commander. “I want to thank SMAC for the work they do every day. The amount of work that takes place to get bombs on target and on time for multiple platforms worldwide is astonishing and they do it day in and day out with an unwavering level of professionalism and efficiency.”
The unit officially stood up on Aug. 24, 2018, and is a total force mix between active-duty military, government service and contractors. The unit is divided among three divisions: intelligence, operations and plans and mission support.
“It takes a special type of leader to command SMAC,” said Armagost. “It has been dynamic in the last couple of years, with lots of firsts and I want to thank Gorecki for his time in command.”
During the ceremony, Armagost noted the increase in demand for speed of delivery, readiness, planning and an increase in complexity provided by SMAC worldwide.
“I am incredibly proud of all the work the SMAC team has accomplished,” said Gorecki. “We boosted our numbers significantly through repetition and that is the team’s doing. I am grateful to have been part of this team.”
In the past three years, SMAC has led the way in process improvements and certification exercises to validate its planning procedures which led to a boosted missile route production capacity by 225 percent.
Additionally, SMAC’s planning supported 202 events and 26 tier 1 joint theater rehearsals and exercises for five combatant commanders’ planning efforts.
The unit also successfully planned the first combat use of the joint air-to-surface standoff missile in the U.S. Air Force with the F-16 Fighting Falcon and B-52 Stratofortress.
During the last few years, SMAC has also enabled the United States’ combat use of the miniature air-launched decoy, resulting in 100 percent of targets neutralized and achieving all combatant commander requirements.
“It gives me comfort as the 8 AF/J-GSOC commander to know that the mission will continue with a high level of professionalism and leadership from Kempen,” said Armagost. “His team will continue to make the complex simple for the warfighter.”
“I am excited to take up the torch and see how we can bring our combat capability to the combatant commands,” said Kempen.