ARMY AL&T
Acquisition Priorities Dempsey emphasized the importance of adaptability. “We will build the Army that will be employed in 2020, and here’s what’s even more interesting to me: We’re building it with full knowldge that this Army will not be what we need in 2030. And that’s why adaptation must be an institutional imperative,” he said.
“It means that we have to revise our concepts every two years. It means we should expect significant organizational redesign every five years. It means incremental modernization with five- to seven-year procurement objectives synchronized to ARFORGEN. It means revision of doctrine, training methodologies, and leader development strategies every one to two years.”
GEN Peter W. Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, noted that the ground combat vehicle, the first pro- duction model of which is expected to be delivered within seven years, embodies the Army’s desire for flex- ibility and versatility. It could benefit from lessons learned with the Army’s incremental modernization of the M1 Abrams tank, Chiarelli said. The present-day M1 is different than the original, because of improvements made with each incremental build, yet is “a platform that still shows great growth potential for the future.”
“If things go the way we hope they will go, [FY12] is not necessarily dire times,” said LTG Robert P. Lennox, the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff (G-8). Lennox said the Army’s funding request to Congress places a high prior- ity on initiatives that enhance Soldiers’ survivability, lethality, and situational awareness, and lighten their loads (See chart on Page 49). These FY12 investments include:
• $1.37 billion to improve M4 Carbines • $1.2 billion to procure unmanned aircraft systems at the division, brigade, and battalion levels
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• $3.9 billion to develop a single, coherent network for Soldiers, platforms, and command posts
• $884 million for Technology Development of the ground combat vehicle, with up to three contractor teams performing design and integration activities
Small-Unit Focus “The small unit, the squad and platoon, has become the decisive element in our formation,” Chiarelli said. “The Army’s success in the future requires us to empower the small unit leader.”
Dr. Malcolm Ross O’Neill, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASAALT), also used the M1 as an example of strength, as he spoke of the need to make the dismounted Soldier a decisive weapon. Citing the M1’s overwhelming lethality, he said, “That’s what we call a decisive advantage: The enemy’s not going to fight you. They give up. I think the M1 tank has that kind of reputation worldwide, and I think the ground combat vehicle that we’re going to be fielding in seven years … will have that kind of decisive advantage.”
Dismounted Soldiers should have the same advantage, he said. “I want every soldier in the world to say, ‘Hell, no, I don’t want to fight the Americans. It’s a losing battle.’ The Soldier’s going to be my most important customer, whether he’s dismounted or mounted.”
A Healthier Workforce LTG William N. Phillips, Principal Military Deputy to the ASAALT and Director of Acquisition Career Management, emphasized the impor- tance of collaboration throughout the design, development, delivery, and sustainment of systems.
“Requirements, resources, acquisition, and sustainment are inherently linked,” Phillips remarked. “They cannot be sequential. We have to be teamed together as we work through this.” With operational demands outpacing traditional business processes, he said, “We have got to reduce the bureaucracy that relates to Big-A acquisition” to prevail against an adaptive, responsive, and evolving enemy.
With regard to the professionals executing these acquisitions, Phillips
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