Acquisition, logistics and technology: Transforming the Army to serve the solider

Army, Oct 2002 by Bolton, Claude M Jr

The Army is making great progress toward realizing a transformed force that is more strategically responsive and dominant at every point on the spectrum of military operations. While our work was well under way, the attacks on our homeland on September 11, 2001, and the operations that followed provided a new sense of urgency and served to justify our earlier decision to accelerate transformation to the Objective Force. We must ensure that our soldiers have the capabilities they need to accomplish the nation's military demands in this new and emerging international security environment.

In the acquisition, logistics and technology community, we are hard at work on several fronts simultaneously. We are working to rebuild and selectively upgrade 17 aging systems to enhance warfighting capabilities in the near term: our recapitalization program. We are acquiring the Stryker family of vehicles for the Interim Force to fill the capabilities gap between our heavy forces and our light forces. We are working to develop the concepts and technologies for the future combat systems (FCS): the foundation of the Objective Force. Our progress is significant.

Last March, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Army announced the selection of the Boeing Company and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as the lead systems integrator for the concept and technology development phase of the FCS program. We viewed this as a critical step in making the Objective Force a reality in this decade. In June, the Army and DARPA, along with the Boeing-SAIC team, awarded study contracts to eight major defense companies-BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Company, GM Defense and UDLP-to bring a diversity of technologies and capabilities to the FCS program. Clearly, this unique partnership is not business as usual.

We are also proud of our success with the Stryker program. The first Stryker brigade combat team (SBCT) took delivery of Strykers just 18 months after the Army awarded the contract, and vehicles for the second SBCT are on order. We attribute the success and tempo of this program to several factors, including clear, consistent direction from Army leadership; strong support from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Congress; and a strong and effective program manger/contractor teaming arrangement. This is not business as usual. In fact, we are doing our business better, faster and cheaper.

My goal is to deliver to the soldier the right capabilities at the right time, right place and right price. To accomplish this we are focusing our efforts in the following areas: programs, people, production and improvement.

In order to get needed weapon systems and equipment into the hands of soldiers as quickly as possible within available resources, we must continue to improve our probability of program success. First, we must get the requirement right. If we don't establish requirements in a disciplined fashion, we will run into problems. That is one area in which we are working closely with the Army's Training and Doctrine Command. Second, we must have the right people in the right places with a clear chain of command. The Army's reorganization accomplished this.

To eliminate duplication of effort among major Army commands, all program executive officers (PEOs) now report directly to me as the Army acquisition executive. We have taken all Army acquisition programs, regardless of acquisition category, and put them under one of the PEOs and given program, project, product managers (PMs) life-cycle responsibility for their programs. Third, we are continuing to examine all ways to reduce cycle times. Because advances in technology occur so rapidly, we will field some of our major weapon systems-like FCS-in increments.

The first increment of capability or block will meet many, but not all, of the system's desired operational requirements. Subsequent blocks will incorporate new technologies that have matured as each block of capability is fielded to the soldier. This approach will lower the risk of program delays and synchronize the latest technological advancements with emerging concepts and transformation demands.

Within the next two to four years, 50 percent of the Army acquisition workforce will be eligible to retire. About one-third of the Army's civilian population is eligible for retirement today. The skills and abilities that the Army will need to replace this aging workforce are very different from the mix of skills we currently have. In addition, a dozen years of downsizing the Army's civilian workforce has created huge gaps in selected occupational sectors that cannot be easily filled. Within the next few years these disparities will only worsen unless we act now to stem the erosion of the civilian Army workforce.

To understand the exact nature of the most critical workforce shortfalls and make the right policy decisions, we need data that accurately describe our current workforce and project what it will become. Planning is under way right now. Our efforts examine workforce characteristics such as occupational specialty, experience and retirement eligibility, educational attainment and pay grade. We are projecting our workforce out seven years to see what the future holds. Based on our most critical needs, we are targeting interventions to attack the most critical areas of concern head-on.