their research dollars, but they’re afraid that they’re out building something that we don’t need, and they’re trying to guess. And so it is on us to do a better job in communicating with industry those capability gaps and get those requests for information out faster. And we’re really going to work that hard.”
Staying up to date with technology will be an ongoing responsibility that indus- try shares with the Army, said GEN Peter W. Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. “We’re going to hold that [vendor] responsible to make sure that they’re stay- ing up with technology. And if they want us to keep buying their widget, their wid- get ... better ensure that it incorporates the advances.”
SUPPORTING THE NETWORK The scope of the COE goes well beyond procurement of tactical and operational applications, Chiarelli noted. “It’s also very, very important for those things that are going to be pulling data that will allow us, across the board, to ensure that we have one network and have accessibility to all the data we need to run an organiza- tion of 1.1 million men and women.”
“The network strategy is now end to end,” Lawrence said. “So, as we became this 80 percent CONUS-based Army, by extend- ing the global network to every post, camp, and station, a Soldier now can train as he fights. We can deploy with little to no notice, and to any austere environment because you’re connected to the network everywhere as we work through this.
“By putting the battle command systems inside the cloud, we can extend it virtu- ally to every post, camp, and station,” she said. “So a Soldier can train in his motor pool on his battle command systems. ... In the past, they had to go to the field to train on their systems.”
INTEGRATING THE TACTICAL NETWORK
Soldiers evaluate technologies and the integration of multiple programs into a larger tactical network during the Brigade Combat Team Modernization Limited User Test at White Sands Missile Range, NM. (U.S. Army photo by Richard Rau.)
The Army has already proven that it can extend the Afghan mission network to the next deployers, Lawrence said. For every unit going into the theater now, “we have put the Afghan Mission Network into their headquarters. Today it’s with MG Jim Huggins [Commanding General] at 82nd Airborne Division,” who meets with his counterpart in Afghanistan every day. “And that’s what this end-to-end global network enterprise is going to deliver for our teams.”
THE PATH FORWARD Edwards and his team are working on establishing the framework and governance structure as part of the imple- mentation plan to execute this vision of the COE. This is a huge undertaking that requires a change in how the Army thinks and develops systems, Edwards said.
When asked how this differs from what the Army did on the Future Combat Systems program, Edwards said, “While the con- cepts are the same, the idea here is to harness software from successful existing systems within a CE and establish that as ‘founda- tional software’ to build on successes.”
When implemented, the COE will give the warfighter and the generating
force unprecedented capability, flexibil- ity, and agility to exploit information, Edwards added.
“We can’t afford to chase technology,” Williamson said. “And so what those stan- dards do for us is to give us the ability to make sure that we are both backward- and forward-compatible as we move forward. And that’s a critical piece of understand- ing the architecture and understanding the standards.”
For more information on the COE, go to
http://ciog6.army.mil.
KRIS OSBORN is a Highly Qualified Expert for the ASAALT Office of Strate- gic Communications. He holds a B.A. in English and political science from Kenyon College and an M.A. in comparative litera- ture from Columbia University.
MARGARET C. ROTH is the Senior Editor of Army AL&T Magazine. She holds a B.A. in Russian language and linguistics from the University of Virginia. Roth has more than a decade of experience in writing about the Army and more than two decades’ experience in journalism and public relations.
A S C . A RMY.MI L 17
ACQUISITION
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