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BIG “A” ACQUISITION: The DOD 5000-series regulations spell out layers of bureaucracy and oversight for the Defense Acquisition Management System. (Courtesy of the author) by Robert F. Mortlock,…
BIG “A” ACQUISITION: The DOD 5000-series regulations spell out layers of bureaucracy and oversight for the Defense Acquisition Management System. (Courtesy of the author) by Robert F. Mortlock,…
WHO IS THE CUSTOMER?: This simple answer—the warfighter—fails to recognize the program manager’s balancing of a program’s cost, schedule and performance, and fails to acknowledge the complex acquisition environment. …
NEW NAVY SWABS: USAMRDC’s Additive Manufacturing Working Group was stood up to streamline the process assisting all DOD additive manufacturers interested in organically producing personal protective equipment and…
BRAND NEW: Soldiers with the 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade trained virtually on new equipment in April 2020 to ensure their readiness using multiband radios for current and…
LOAD ‘EM UP: Sgt. Cedric Melton, 63rd Expeditionary Signal Battalion (ESB), 35th Signal Brigade inspects the vehicles before they are loaded on a plane at Hunter Army Airfield,…
THE COLLECTION: Maj. Juan Guzman, the chief of the Armed Services Blood Bank Center–Pacific Northwest, shows Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Thomas McCaffery where the center…
SUNRISE ON THE HORIZON: The first rays of an orbital sunrise illuminate the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere in January 2020, creating a glowing arc as the ISS orbits 259…
FORT BELVOIR, Va. (February 1, 2021)—For nearly a year now, the Army’s acquisition enterprise has forged ahead through unprecedented difficulties, delivering and enhancing capabilities in the face of…
HOUSTON, DO YOU COPY?: Morgan, left, Springer, center, and Hood visited the Mission Control Center in Houston. By Jacqueline M. Hames “STEM is a full-contact sport,” said…
There may never be a silver bullet for defeating COVID-19—instead, it may require defense in depth, including three possible weapons from USAMMDA. by Carey A….
MADE EASY TO USE: Spc. Nathaniel Coleman, a treatment non-commissioned officer with the 44th Medical Battalion, demonstrates MEDHUB system in a field hospital setting. The MEDHUB system was…
THANKING THE TEAM: Secretary of the Army, Hon. Ryan D. McCarthy, visited defense contractor facilities and government offices at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama on July 1 to thank personnel…
IN THE FEEDBACK LOOP: A rifle squad from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, visit Bell Flight’s Arlington, Texas, facility in October. The Soldiers provided crucial feedback on the…
IN THE FIELD: Soldiers gained hands-on experience during field validation exercises with the Hamilton T1 ventilator at the 10th Field Hospital at Fort Carson, Colorado, in 2018. (Photo…
READY FOR ITS CLOSEUP: A shipment of vials of remdesivir intended for clinical trial use. Gilead Sciences invested millions of dollars of independent research and development funding to…
IN THE ROTATION: Under the redesigned LEAD program, the entire cohort of fellows will complete a concurrent six-month rotation at the Pentagon, working as Department of the Army…
SUPPLY CHAIN IN MOTION: U.S. Navy Logistics Specialist 1st Class Emmeline Manaois moves medical supplies to be counted and distributed within Javits New York Medical Station, April 11, 2020, in…
DECONTAMINATION COMPLETE: The 436th Airlift Wing and the 436th Maintenance Wing complete testing of the Joint Biological Agent Decontamination System (JBADS) Lite on an in-operation C-17. (U.S. Air Force by…
Afghanistan to receive more than a million ventilator masks, gowns and gloves by Adriane Elliot Neither a global pandemic nor a pending troop withdrawal has halted U.S….
FEEDBACK IS KEY: A Soldier wears the IVAS and wields a Squad Immersive Virtual Trainer prototype at a touch-point event. If not for constant Soldier feedback from these events, the…
HEAVENLY HOST: The cloud reduces hosting costs, improves continuity of operations and increases security. (Photo by GettyImages) U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center charts a course to cloud migration…
KEEPING UP: Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael A. Grinston, center, remotely drives a pre-prototype Robotic Combat Vehicle from inside a Mission Enabling Technologies Demonstrator at Fort Carson, Colorado, in…
The COVID-19 pandemic forced U.S. Army Operational Test Command to innovate during a new system’s operational test. by Maj. Graham L. Mullins The proverb “Necessity is…
VITAL LINK: Researchers from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory and Texas A&M University developed a first-of-its-kind, 3D printable and stimuli-responsive polymeric material expected to…
GET ON THE AI TRAIN: Appropriate training environments and tools are essential to successfully integrating AI. The GCSS-Army virtual training environment could be a tailorable platform used to train Soldiers…
LOCK AND KEY: All Army employees, military and civilian, are charged with protecting classified information. But problems can arise from trying to promote full and open competition while also protecting…
AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION: A Crane Army Ammunition Activity employee labels containers of hand sanitizer. Crane Army collaborated with McAlester Army Ammunition Plant to develop a hand sanitizer…
WHAT A GEM: The U.S. Army ground effects machines, or GEM, was a hovercraft powered by two aircraft engines driving ducted fans and was capable of traveling over land or…
MOVE OUT: The author participated in Capability Set 23 planning discussions, which involved tailoring the ITN to Stryker and armored units. He saw results of the Network Cross-Functional Team’s…
A NEW LOOK: Ruben Cruz, procurement analyst for the Army Artificial Intelligence Task Force, examines sensors in an autonomous robot built at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1980s….
DEVIL IN THE DETAILS: The proposal development process is a huge and sometimes expensive undertaking. Winning business can dictate whether the company can stay in that line of business. (Image…
INTEGRATED NETWORK: The ITN provides smaller, lighter, faster and more flexible communications systems with multiple connectivity options primarily at battalion and below. Paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division provided the…
AUSTERE CARE: NETCCN is meant to provide military medical care to the austere environments likely to be found during multidomain operations, like the ones these U.S. Marines found in August…
The Army’s xTechSearch program uncovers value and innovation. By Jess Stillman A panel of Army experts chose 48 concept white papers from the 351 submitted for…
Innovation Combine finds better, cheaper and faster in more ways than one. By Kristin Mcnelis Finding novel technology solutions to the Army’s modernization challenges is just that—challenging….
The Army’s xTechSearch program leverages its success to find the innovation the Army needs—and reveals good old American ingenuity. by Christopher J. Semancik The COVID-19 pandemic hit the…