BUILDING ON OUR ACQUISITION SUCCESSES
goal of delivering new battlefield-ready capabilities to Soldiers. The NIE is used for rapid evaluation of capabilities to include software-programmable radios able to move voice, video, data, and images across a terrestrial network to sat- ellites, sensors, software, unmanned aerial systems, and handheld devices such as smartphones for dismounted individual Soldiers. The NIE connects them with all of these programs to one another and up to higher echelons of command with key, battle-relevant information.
The
NIE is designed to ensure that the Army keeps up with the fast pace of technologi- cal change by tracking and in some cases leveraging the latest in commercial tech- nological innovation.
The first NIE, organized around a 3,800-Soldier Brigade Combat Team, fin- ished up in July 2011. The second one finished in November.
‘A NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS’
The Army’s ongoing Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) allows Soldiers to test and evaluate new technologies before they are fielded to Soldiers downrange. Here, SSG Reag Wood from 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division uses a handheld device as a translator to communicate with a “town elder,” a role played by SGT Steven Howell from 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, during the NIE 12.1 exercise at White Sands Missile Range, NM, in November 2011. (Photo by LTC Deanna Bague.)
Achieving and maintaining interoperabil- ity and integration early on are critical, allowing us to reduce or avoid costs and to keep to program schedules later in the acquisition process.
BETTER BUYING POWER As we strive to codify many of these important improvements to the acquisi- tion process, we should be mindful that
INTEGRATION Another area of effort and improvement in the acquisition community is system-of- systems interoperability and integration.
The Army’s current transition to a com- mon operating environment (COE) represents part of this critical approach and focus. The COE provides a frame- work to build from and around, allowing for early integration between systems and improved interoperability.
we are laying the groundwork for better acquisitions tomorrow.
DoD’s target is to save $450 billion over 10 years. Army acquisition is making great strides in working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to meet these goals through a number of cost-saving measures, many of them outlined in Dr. Ashton B. Carter’s Better Buying Power initiatives aimed at maximizing produc- tivity and gaining efficiencies throughout the entire acquisition life cycle.
Some of our critical approaches in this effort include formally building affordabil- ity metrics into the structure of programs and considering cost as an independent variable in the acquisition process. By estab- lishing affordability as a key performance parameter woven into the developmental structure of acquisition programs, pro- gram executive officers and individual project managers are encouraged to find innovative methods of delivering needed technologies while simultaneously lower- ing costs, finding additional savings, and avoiding unneeded expenses.
REQUIREMENTS Performing requirements trade-offs to drive down costs in certain circum- stances is another great example of how we are realizing some of these important goals. In our Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program, for instance, we have synchro- nized requirements with our Marine Corps partners and in some cases made key trade-offs wherein we give up certain requirements in order to drive down unit costs. We managed to significantly drop the per-vehicle cost without compro- mising the core capabilities and valued technologies fundamental to the new vehicle. We will deliver Soldiers a JLTV engineered with an unprecedented blend of protection, payload, and performance for a light tactical vehicle; the JLTV will
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Army AL&T Magazine
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