CHAMPION FOR TECHNOLOGY
will be as significant as the introduction of the machine gun or the change from horse to mechanized vehicles. Impor- tantly, he makes a distinction between the nature of war, which he says is immutable, and the character of war, which changes with our adversaries, the terrain and, in this case, the technologies we have and the technologies our Soldiers face.
As RDECOM commander, I have to make sure we are working on the capa- bilities our Soldiers need to dominate any adversary with respect to both the nature and the character of war. And we have to do that across the Army’s primary time horizons—the current fight,
the next
fight and the future fight. We have to give Soldiers what they need to survive the nature of war and win within the character of the particular conflict they might face. Te RDECOM team does that by working on programs to take the cognitive load off Soldiers so they can overcome the fog of war, which is part of its nature. At the same time, we’re work- ing on programs that gather data about the character of a particular situation that our Soldiers face for decision-makers.
Fundamentally, war is a series of actions and reactions. We make changes and our adversaries make moves and counter- moves, and we discover second- and third-order
effects. For example, the
changes in the character of war—the speed of communications, movement, firepower, etc.—mean that decisions are being made at lower and lower levels. When I came in the Army, you had to find a platoon leader or a tactical opera- tions center to find a radio. Now, every Soldier is increasingly becoming a node on the network, and, as a part of the multi domain battle, we expect a continu- ous, uninterrupted mission command with a robust and resilient network. Tat brings the obvious power and weight considerations, which we have to address.
Tat’s the RD&E [research, development and engineering] part of the readiness picture. Te more we can empower our Soldiers to dominate an adversary, unburden them of what is distracting or unnecessary and protect them from their adversaries, the better our Soldiers can defend our nation and its interests.
Sarantinos-Perrin: How do you see RDECOM shaping readiness for today and tomorrow?
Wins: A big part of working across these time horizons is keeping the technology pipeline full. We need to strike the right balance between near-term and far-term technology so that we can stay ahead of our adversaries. One way we do this is by working with industry to capture
emerging technology and figure out how we can adapt it for military use. We also collaborate with industry to develop tech- nology that has a military application and can also be used commercially. Tis collaboration, in my view, needs to occur early and often, minimizing barriers that sometimes occur when government and industry partners compete. Ten, we need to make the technology available for our Soldiers as quickly as possible.
Te Global Positioning System, or GPS, which was once a revolutionary product, is used around the world in cars, boats, planes, trains, smartphones and wrist- watches. While our Soldiers rely on GPS to navigate, our adversaries have figured out how to jam the signals, and they are taking advantage of that. In order to stay ahead of our adversaries and keep the pipeline going, we are working on the successor to GPS by developing new algorithms and architectures that will provide stronger signals and plug-and- play integration across multiple platforms.
We often pursue long-term technology through our research efforts even though we do not know how it will be applied for the Army or how it will change the char- acter of war. For instance, we are working on high-energy lasers, a technology that we have been working on for 16 years, which will affect the overall character of
KEEPING THE FUEL TANK AND TECH PIPELINE FULL
TARDEC and General Motors Co. worked together to develop the ZH2 hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle, an example of the state-of- the-art capacity RDECOM champions and evaluates for military use. TARDEC helped inform requirements for the new ZH2, which is currently being evaluated at various military bases around the country. (U.S. Army photo)
58
Army AL&T Magazine
October-December 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156
