MEETING IN THE MIDDLE
You serve as the “face” of PEO C3T to the operational forces. What does that mean to you?
What that means to me is that rather than a series of individual project managers inter- facing with the field, the program executive office is now taking on a role within that discussion. Because I’m a general officer, it allows us to now participate more readily and interact with senior leaders across the Army to help work some of these complex issues of network modernization. It starts to answer [the question], “Are we support- ing the readiness of the field in the best possible way?” A civilian can absolutely do this job, but it’s a little bit different when you have a military officer talking with operational commanders and lead- ers. Another important aspect is that as we interface with the field, it is not just what PEO C3T can do to support readiness, but also what our mission partners [the
U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, etc.] can do in support as well— this is a team sport.
A lot of what is fielded relates directly to the requirements. Any general thoughts on requirements?
Over the past couple of years, we have seen probably a bit more friction between the requirements side of the Army ver- sus the acquisition side, and that’s not appropriate. It’s not healthy. Honestly, part of the acquisition reform the Army is undertaking under the leadership of the secretary of the Army and chief of staff is really getting back to the basics of the requirements community focused on the requirements and working them through their channels, and the acquisi- tion community focusing on acquiring
and procuring those capabilities based on those requirements. It’s almost disci- plining the system. When we were at war, lines blurred because we were trying to do the very best we could as fast as we could, and that line between require- ments and acquisition turned from black and white to gray. Now we need to sepa- rate them, and we need to make sure it’s a healthy separation.
I’m not suggesting this is done in a vac- uum; there still has to be dialogue. Te requirements community can draft bet- ter requirements when supported closely by acquisition professionals. Likewise, the acquisition community can make better program decisions when working collaboratively with the requirements community. I think that is another niche I fill, in helping to bridge that gap, help- ing to make sure that there are productive lines of communication.
A QUESTION OF BALANCE
Brig. Gen. Karl Gingrich, who served on a fielding and sustainment panel hosted by the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association–Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, chapter, in September 2016, says that simplicity in communications technology is key: The simpler the equipment is, the less time it will take to train Soldiers on it. (U.S. Army photo by Nancy Jones- Bonbrest, PEO C3T)
What we’re going through right now as an Army is that cultural change to get back to fundamentals. We are relearning how we do training management and unit maintenance.
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Army AL&T Magazine
January-March 2017
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