The Enterprise Team - Business Relationship Reengineering - in development and implementation of foreign military sales programmes

DISAM Journal, Summer, 2001 by John Daniele

When you drill down through the layers of Department of Defense directives, policy memorandums and dynamic briefing charts, the Enterprise Team is exposed for what it truly is, a concept, not a group of individuals or organizations. What you will find is a dedicated, mission focused approach to the principles of security assistance. Driven by the vision and strategic objectives of our political and military leadership, the Enterprise Team demonstrates that collectively there exist the experience, knowledge and energy to accomplish several of the high profile and high priority missions at hand. Professionalism and commitment, not policy nor procedures, were the origin and motivation of the Enterprise Team.

Who Is the Enterprise Team?

Four separate organizations, spanning three military services and a joint command, labor daily to execute highly complex projects and programs in direct support of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives.

In a 4 August 2000 memorandum, the Advanced Distributed Learning Regional Engagement Network (ADL/REN) was established as an activity of the United States Joint Forces Command, Suffolk, Virginia. The ADL/REN represents a worldwide coordinated approach to using regional data services networks for coalition education and training through advanced distributed learning. The backbone of the ADL/REN is a capability to distribute a Computer Assisted Exercise (CAX) across national borders. The roots of the ADL/REN can be found in the highly successful Partnership for Peace (PfP) simulation network demonstration conducted at the April 1999 NATO summit.

The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD), Orlando, Florida, a subordinate organization of the Naval Air Systems Command, executes security assistance as delegated by the Navy International Programs Office. The U.S Navy by a June 1999 Secretary of Defense memorandum is charged with processing all foreign military sales letters of offer and acceptance funded under the auspicious of the Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities (EIPC) program. The EIPC program, by Congressional mandate, is focused solely on peace support operations and training.

The National Military Command Center (NMCC) initiative is a product of the United States Air Force, Electronics Systems Center (ESC), Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts. The NIMCC program is designed to provide a low cost, capable, national command center for crisis management. It encourages regional cooperation, the utilization of civil and military resources, and a tool to manage local crisis. The NMCC will be of considerable assistance to the U.S., NATO and the region during periods of crisis.

A major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, the Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM), Orlando, Florida, manages a robust and expanding security assistance program, with guidance from the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command (USASAC). STRICOM is currently supporting a computer based war-game constructive simulation capability in over thirty countries worldwide, twenty within the European Command area of responsibility and eight Partnership for Peace members.

The Value of Teaming!

The capability to conduct training for peace support operations, under the auspices of the EJPC program managed by NAWCTSD, largely involves the establishment of electronic classrooms, in accordance with U. S. Classroom XXI and the principles of advanced distributed learning. The core equipment list for these facilities involves workstation personal computers, local area networks (LAN), and classroom presentation and projection equipment. A typical simulation center that STRICOM provides under FMS programs involves 12 to 16 workstation personal computers, LAN capability, required operating software and the requested model or simulation. A distributed computer assisted exercise (CAX) capability that would support the requirement of the USJFCOM ADL/REN entails a number of personal computer workstations, LAN, video teleconferencing capability, routers, IMUX (an inverse multi-plexor), and other peripheral hardware. Additional workstations, operating system and command and control software, allows a facility to b egin resembling a national military control center as proposed by ESC.

The commonality of hardware requirements and the potential for a building block approach throughout these separate but similar efforts is fairly obvious when described as above. However, without an Enterprise Team approach amongst the organizations executing these programs, it is not as obvious. Others involved in these individual projects, such as host nation representatives, or U.S. security assistance officers in country, or the Department of Defense security assistance leadership, do not possess a vantage point to recognize these potential technical and functional leveraging and cost saving opportunities.

The Enterprise Team Charter

The undersigned agree to optimize investments, reduce overlap and avoid redundancy in the execution of assigned programs in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives. Our strategy is to execute these assigned programs in a collaborative method to: