Jan – March issue of Army AL&T magazine available online now
By Steve Stark
Fort Belvoir, VA, Jan 6, 2015—The U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center announced today that the January – March 2015 edition of Army AL&T magazine is now available online. The magazine, themed “Force 2025 and Beyond,” takes a deep look into the future of the Army out to 2040. It includes a frank conversation with U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Commanding General, Gen. David. G. Perkins, who spearheaded the new “U.S. Army Operating Concept: Win in a Complex World, 2020-2040.” Perkins suggests that defense planning for the future should focus less on exactly what capabilities the Army will deploy against which adversary and on what battlefield, and more on what the future will look like geographically, technologically, demographically and otherwise. That way, a more expeditionary Army can plan and equip to address emergent challenges. Perkins also suggests that, while it’s “almost heresy,” perhaps acquisition success should be measured not by programs of record completed, but by programs of record canceled because the Army has recognized them as obsolete.
A more expeditionary Army will need energy to project power. That’s not just energy at the tip of the spear, but in all of the facilities that help to produce and sharpen that spear. That’s why the Joint Munitions Command (JMC) is looking to solar, geothermal and wind power to get to net zero energy for its Army industrial base installations. “Above, Below and Around” looks at the variety of energy sources that JMC is pursuing; there’s more on energy initiatives, and research and development in “Energy Circuit,” a roundup of projects and efforts to power change in Army energy.
The new edition of Army AL&T magazine also launches a new column that looks at acquisition, logistics and technology from an industry perspective. In “Industry Insight,” BAE Systems’ Mark Signorelli, vice president and general manager, Combat Vehicles, discusses issues facing the defense manufacturing industrial base, particularly a looming “bathtub” in the foreseeable pattern of federal defense spending. This is a tough time, with manufacturing way down from its peak, and Signorelli discusses how BAE is working to preserve needed skills and work with government to make sure that the skills, knowledge and expertise are in place and “warm” should the need arise.
When the Hon. Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, introduced the new draft BBP 3.0 last September, he made it clear that Better Buying Power is here to stay. The new issue of Army AL&T goes into depth on Kendall’s thinking on what’s worked, what’s working and what needs to work better, in “BBP 3.0 101.”
There’s another new column in the new edition of AL&T. “Technically Speaking” aims to be anything but technical. Many defense dignitaries have mentioned how hard, but how critical, it is for science and technology communities to speak simply and plainly about what they do and why it’s important. Army AL&T reached out to British astrophysicist and theoretical cosmologist Dr. Alberto Trotta, author of “The Edge of the Sky,” a critically acclaimed new book that explains astrophysics and more using only the 1,000 most common words in English. “Technically Speaking” is not just a column, however, but a call to action for readers to take a complex and technical topic—a program, a phenomenon, a job—and explain it in plain terms, using only the 1,000 most common words. Because if Hill staffers don’t understand a concept, they’re not likely to pass the information on to their bosses.
View the interactive e-magazine online, or download the PDF.
Army AL&T—the app—is now available for the following devices on the iTunes App Store and Google Play:
iPhone and iPad
Android Devices
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