From the Editor-in-Chief T
here was a time when the occasional playground fight wasn’t all that unusual—whether it was a cou- ple of friends horsing around, or a dustup between Little League rivals. Tose of us who might have
gotten involved in such altercations were told to “fight fair.” No kicking someone once they were on the ground, no throwing sand in their face, no hair pulling, no brass knuckles—you get the idea. Fair by these standards meant everyone had an equal footing and knew what to expect. Tose were the Marquess of Queensberry rules (which made boxing civilized back in the 19th century) adapted for the sandlot.
On the flip side, if you ever lost a fight, your dad (or at least mine) would be the first one to tell you never to be the second one to cheat. (My dad was a World War II and Korean War veteran, so he wasn’t much for losing.)
Te battlefield isn’t a playground, and the Army’s opinion about warfare is pretty much the same as my dad’s. It’s summed up well in the 2009 Army Modernization White Paper: “We never want to send our Soldiers into a fair fight.”
Tat determination to dominate our adversaries continues today with the publication of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, “Sharpening the American Military’s Competitive Edge.” Its focus is on building a lethal force “that possesses decisive advan- tages for any likely conflict” and “accelerating our modernization programs and devoting additional resources in a sustained effort to solidify our competitive advantage.” Cognitive dissonance, anyone? Not really. Te perspective of “fair” changes dramati- cally when your life, or your Soldier’s life, is at stake.
Te strategy demands that we (the Army Acquisition Workforce, in collaboration with the rest of the Army enterprise) modern- ize key capabilities and build a more lethal force that includes generous helpings of each of the six modernization priorities outlined by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley and by Undersecretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy last fall while McCarthy was acting secretary.
To top it off, Army Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper and McCarthy have made modernization one of their top three priorities overall, along with readiness and acquisition reform. To make those three priorities a reality, Army leadership has created the new Futures Command and its eight cross-functional teams, providing unity
of effort and command under “one roof,” as McCarthy put it in our interview with him. It’s going to take uncommon unity to bring all stakeholders together to speed capability development. (Read more about McCarthy and his priorities in “One Roof,” Page 19.) As this edition of Army AL&T went to press, the Army was roll- ing out the new command in the most significant Army reorgani- zation effort since 1973.
@
Email Nelson McCouch III
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Future acquisition experts may look back and declare this a golden age, with a renewed focus on acquisition and a stated desire by leadership to do what’s necessary to get it right. We’ll see, but for now the Army Acquisition Workforce is doing its part to modernize and ensure that our Soldiers don’t enter into any fair fights. For example, the Emerging Technology Office of the Army Rapid Capabilities Office is helping speed the devel- opment and maturation of promising technology by working with both traditional and nontraditional industry and academia to give their ideas a test bed. (Read “Honest Broker,” Page 32.)
Steve Blank, creator of the “Lean Startup” method and a co- founder of Hacking for Defense, has a great deal of advice for the Army and DOD on what to do—and what not to do—in modernizing the force and its institutions. One piece of that advice is “Get out of the building. Tere are no facts in the building.” (Read more in “Get Out,” Page 124.)
Finally, I want to recognize the acquisition members across the Army who, every quarter, provide us with the superior content that tells the Army acquisition story and makes this magazine a valued resource for the thousands who read it. In recognition, we hold an annual competition and award the best of the best with an ALTie! Read more about the award and this year’s win- ners on Page 161. Congratulations to everyone who participated.
As always, if you want to contribute a story, have a story idea or just want to comment, please contact us at ArmyALT@
gmail.com.
Nelson McCouch III Editor-in-Chief
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