ARMY AL&T
to fit that into how the Army Contracting Command was going to set up to support the AFC,” Hodges explained.
CONTRACTING POWER
Hodges confers with teammates Mike Foster and Maj. Isaac Lewellen. Hodges has led the creation of an environment in which the RCCTO can execute its own contracts for projects, as opposed to relying on an external contracting organization. (Photo by Catherine DeRan, U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center)
“In the positions I’ve had in the past, I’ve seen the bureaucracy that gets in the way when engineers try to hand over new systems to program managers for the next stage of development, as well as the paper- work that’s involved in all of that and the frustration that occurs when the require- ment doesn’t match with the product. I was interested in figuring out what role contracting could play to address all of that—how to best combine user feed- back, research and development, program management and contracting to quickly field better products for Soldiers.”
“I was fortunate enough to have a mentor who told me not to stay in the headquar- ters and instead get operational experience, which would give me a better perspec- tive later in my career.” She became a contracting officer with what was then the U.S. Army Communications- Electronics Command’s acquisition center, working with the Project Manager for Countermine and Explosive Ordnance Detection. Tere, she had the opportunity early in the war in Afghanistan to support route clearance missions through urgent requirements that came from research- and-development and went out in theater for operational assessments.
Hodges and her team found non-
developmental and commercially avail- able capabilities, adapted them and fielded them quickly. Te Husky Mounted Detec- tion System used a ground-penetrating radar to detect anomalies in the ground, while the Vehicle Optics Sensor System supported the route surveillance with a camera system on a telescoping mast that
could be used in a variety of environments and while on-the-move. Both systems are in use today.
Working on those projects and seeing how the Army could respond to urgent require- ments with systems that were developed through nontraditional research-and- development production schedules set the stage for how Hodges has approached contracting ever since. “I saw how success- ful it was early on, and then I was able to apply those lessons to the more traditional acquisition approaches for the programs of record that I supported in the future.”
Te experience also motivated Hodges to raise her hand when the Army asked for volunteers for the Army Futures Command (AFC) Task Force to help set up contracting at AFC headquarters and the entire command. “For that position, I really got to use all of that experience in working with the labs, working with research-and-development, but also figur- ing out how to do that expeditiously and
Most memorable about the eight-month task force assignment “is how the culture enabled a small group of personnel to quickly come together, build trust within the group and with external organizations to implement a significant reorganization within the Army in weeks and months,” she said. “Te Army needs to harness the cultural aspect across the board to meet the demands of multidomain operations.”
She added, “What’s hard, and why we are professionals, is because we are expected to provide the advice to do the right thing, in the right circumstance, at the right time. It’s much harder to do the right thing, to make sure the contract is established in the right way, or that we approach the acquisition strategy in a way that’s not necessarily ‘hitting the easy button,’ but you know the result is going to be better in the long term. I’ve always been encour- aged to do the right thing and not hit the easy button. … A short-term success may not be what’s best in the long term for the Soldier.”
—SUSAN L. FOLLETT
https://asc.ar my.mil
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