TAKING ‘AGILE’ TO THE NEXT LEVEL
on what systems will participate in the NIEs and provide detailed “scorecards” to industry on how the technologies per- formed and what could be improved in the future.
To date, the Army has evaluated more than
115 industry gaps,
the NIE construct to potentially fill capability
solutions to operational energy systems. We have
seen tremendous innovation
from businesses both large and as small as 12 people. As a result of the NIEs, the Army has entered into procurement of handheld Nett Warrior systems, Soldier Radio Waveform Appliqué radios, AN/ PRC-117G radios, routers, and antenna and power generation kits.
LESSONS LEARNED ON TRAINING
The NIEs have provided lessons learned for how Soldiers and acquisition managers should field, train, sustain, and maintain network capabilities, as well as what the Army should procure. To support the first fielding of Capability Set (CS) 13 to the 3rd and 4th Brigades of the 10th Mountain Division, the Army’s System of Systems Integration Directorate and the 10th Mountain conducted a CS 13 equipment “handoff” and viewing at Fort Drum, NY, on Oct. 11. After several months of training on the new systems, the units are slated to deploy with CS 13 assets in 2013.
reduction for both government and industry systems.
Te Army will also incorporate lessons learned once the CS arrives in theater, using continuous evaluation to incremen- tally improve network capabilities. Tis model, which marks a departure from the test/fail mentality often applied to acquisition programs, allows the Army to continuously perform assessments and collect data to refine capabilities and seek better industry solutions.
We are now leveraging industry innova- tion by bringing in mature commercial technologies for evaluation earlier in the development cycle. When these systems show promise, we also integrate them with the larger Army network, ensuring
20 Army AL&T Magazine January–March 2013
that off-the-shelf products work within the network baseline.
To enter into the process, companies respond to a “sources sought” notification detailing the Army’s defined capability gaps, and then are selected to enter labo- ratories at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, for technology evaluation, assess- ment, and integration. Tis lab-based risk reduction gives the Army a venue to measure technical maturity in a system- of-systems context.
It also benefits industry by allowing
companies to plug their systems into the Army network baseline and discover any interoperability challenges before Soldiers encounter them during the NIE. Te lab assessments inform the Army’s choices
To date, the Army has spent approximately $300 million to facilitate industry participation in the NIE, and to procure systems out of the NIE to support CS fielding. Te Army now maintains a dedicated pool of funding for NIE support; to support future procurements, the Army has requested funding to procure promising capabilities emerging from the NIE.
Going forward to support future NIEs, the Army will continue to send out sources sought
notices for broader
capability gaps, while also sending out formal Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for targeted capability gaps. Te RFP process will help ensure that we have competition on delivery orders for targeted capabilities. While the supporting processes are still evolving, there is no doubt that the NIE construct has dramatically improved coordination and partnership between the Army and industry. Industry partners are receiving information on specific network needs and technical standards to better focus their efforts, and we look forward to seeing their continued innovation.
solutions using from cross-domain
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