and engineering and requirement con- tracting. Tis plan will include a one-year operational assignment between majors to full-bird colonels to enhance their under- standing of user operational needs.
“Tis is a leader issue. We are adjusting our organization to put capable, proven leaders at the head of every organization who will be singly focused … in order to provide focused clarity to the require- ments process,” McCarthy said.
His directive, coupled with the congres- sionally mandated return of milestone decision authority for most acquisition programs to the services, promises to have sweeping effects on the education and career development of acquisition personnel, both uniformed and civilian.
In February, Lt. Gen. Paul A. Ostrowski, principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics
and technology (ASA(ALT)),
approved a new curriculum for acquisi- tion personnel to emphasize the technical aspects of program management over the traditional business administration focus. “Time will tell, of course, if the desired results emerge,” observed John T. Dillard, a retired Army project manager who is now a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School. “But these are the largest confluence of changes I have seen in my entire acquisition career.”
CONCLUSION Is the Army really ready to make innova- tion happen as it modernizes?
Tere is a sense of urgency among major players that is unlike any in the recent past.
“At REF, I heavily invested in the teams that we had forward,” Newell said. “Teir job was to find problems and pull
them from the battlefield, and not wait passively for someone to bring them something.” Tat’s exactly what McCar- thy and Milley want to see.
Te new futures command will need flexibility to innovate, Newell went on.
“Tey need to be funded in a manner that doesn’t artificially tell them you’re going to buy 17 widgets this year. Tey don’t know how many problems they’re going to solve a year. … Te money they’re given needs to be treated as investment- like dollars.”
Te first pieces are now in place for the most significant organizational change to the Army’s procurement system since Gen. Creighton W. Abrams replaced the Continental Army Command in 1973 with U.S. Army Forces Command and U.S. Training and Doctrine Command, which, with U.S. Army Materiel Com- mand, have formed the foundation for the Army since then—organizing, equipping and training forces to conduct prompt and sustained land combat operations in support of combatant commanders.
As the new futures command takes shape, the Army has aligned 80 percent of its $2.4 billion in S&T funding with the six modernization priorities and, through a threat-based strategy, has taken steps to ensure that technological solutions are mature before the Army transitions them to a program of record. Lastly, the Army is putting the right people in the right places to execute the newly streamlined requirements and acquisition processes.
“We are at an inflection point in history, as we must reform how we modern- ize our Army: the roles, responsibilities, structures, organizations,” Milley said. Readiness has improved in recent years, he said, “but we are not there yet. And we
must continue to lean into the readiness with a laser-focus sense of urgency like we’ve never had before.”
Judging from the Army acquisition leadership now in place,
the futures
command has a promising future. Te current ASA(ALT), Dr. Bruce D. Jette,
“brilliantly designed the Rapid Equipping Force,” said Newell, who called Jette
“probably the most significant innovation figure that I know of who came out of uniform within the Army. He’s impas- sioned. I think that he will absolutely drive some folks crazy.
“Ostrowski also worked at REF and was a great counsel to me while I was at REF and he was the PEO [program execu- tive officer for] Soldier. So you now have some guys who were together eight, nine years ago, 10 years ago, back together again—which I think is a great thing” for innovation, Newell said.
“I think within the Pentagon there’s a clear movement in that direction,” he said.
“Now the question is how long it will take them to get the albatross to move.”
MS. MARGARET C. ROTH is an editor of Army AL&T magazine. She has more than a decade of experience in writing about the Army and more than three decades’ experience in
journalism and
public relations. Roth is a MG Keith L. Ware Public Affairs Award winner and a co-author of the book “Operation Just Cause: Te Storming of Panama.” She holds a B.A. in Russian language and linguistics from the University of Virginia.
CONTRIBUTOR: Mr. Michael Bold, editor, Army AL&T
HTTPS: / /
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