ARMY AL&T


“Each of the German test centers we visited provided something significant for ATC to consider,” Holt explained. “The German army operates under much tighter constraints of test fund- ing. As a result, they have invested wisely in equipment and facilities that can bring down overall test costs. As resources become tighter for our Army, we need to make similar investments.”


During the trip to Germany, Holt and one of ATC’s test managers, Daniel Terek, were joined by Brendon Webb, Chief of AEC’s Tactical Mobility Division, and Eberhard Kloeckner, German Liaison Officer at APG. The group visited the Bundeswehr Technical Center for Weapons and Ammunition in Meppen; the Federal Ministry of Defense’s Directorate General of Armaments, Army Equipment and Technology in Bonn; the Federal Office of Defense Technology and Procurement in Koblenz; the Bundeswehr Technical Center for Automotive and Armored Vehicles in Trier; and the Bundeswehr Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics in Greding. Officials of these German defense agencies provided their American visitors with tours and briefings.


Focus on Soldier Protection Among the most important topics of the trip were the development and testing of systems that protect Soldiers from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and explosively formed penetrators, and the development and testing of vehicles needed in the combat theater, Kloeckner said.


Holt was especially interested in the Target Simulation Dome at the Technical Center for Information Technology and Electronics. Upgrading the Moving Target Simulator at ATC is on Holt’s to-do list, and he would like to achieve this with technical support from the Bundeswehr test center.


Wolfgang Vollmar (left), director of the Bundeswehr’s Technical Center for Information Technology and Elec- tronics, and COL Jeffrey Holt, ATC Commander, shake hands before exchanging coins. (Photo by Erika Jordan.)


OCTOBER –DECEMBER 2010 50


Kloeckner said the visitors from ATC also focused on Germany’s development and testing of technologies that provide command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabili- ties. “On the subject of C4ISR, ATC especially posed questions on the themes of network data models and critical network performance criteria,” Kloeckner said. “They wanted to know, ‘How does the Bundeswehr determine the effectiveness and suitability of a network system?’ There were also many points of discussion about cooperative efforts and an information exchange between German and American testers.”


Opportunities to Learn Holt said a long-term engineer exchange program could benefit both Germany and the United States in the long run. “I would very much like to put a long- term program in place to exchange engineers between each of our test centers,” he said. “Several years ago, we were able to send one of our young automotive engineers to the Technical Center for Automotive and Armored Vehicles in Trier. Tim Hoy learned a great deal from the exchange and has put those skills to use as one of our critical leaders on the MRAP [Mine


Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle] program. I would like to leverage similar opportunities for live-fire and electronics engineers.


“One major challenge we face is access,” Holt continued. “When we send a U.S. engineer to Germany, he or she is provided with almost completely unfettered access. The barriers to equal access for German engineers working at APG are far more difficult to overcome.”


Hoy’s 13 months at the German test center in Trier prompted him to raise the issue of instrumentation on MRAP vehicles operating in the combat theater that could benefit coalition partners by collecting data. The idea is to install sensors, such as the black boxes in aircraft, on MRAPs in Afghanistan to collect data that can be used to assess vehicle survivability and automotive performance on the battlefield and to make improvements in vehicle design and acquisition strategy.


“Especially after an IED hit, one can evaluate valuable data, which provide conclusions about the vehicles’ improve- ment potential,” Kloeckner explained. “The Bundeswehr has similar systems,


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