COORDINATION IS KEY: The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis; the Prime Minister of Romania, Nicolae Cicua; and the Minister of the Armed Forces of the French Republic, Florence Parly, address dignitaries and troops of the NATO Alliance at Mihail Kogalniceanu Airbase, Romania, March 6, 2022. As a member of the Alliance, the U.S. makes a commitment to provide forces to the NATO Response Force and work in coordination with allies and partners to deter further Russian aggression. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Alvin Reeves, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
A regional contracting center was established to support forward operating stations in Eastern Europe, enabling friendly forces to reinforce the European theater’s response to Russian aggression.
by Maj. Emery Baughan and Maj. Zach Shutte
After Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, NATO’s focus turned towards enabling Ukraine’s defense—and the need for additional support became immediately apparent.
“As combat operations continued in Ukraine, the 409th Contracting Support Brigade [CSB] quickly realized we did not have the organic resources available to support the rapid growth of U.S. forces on Europe’s eastern flank,” said Col. Jarret Moffit, commander of the 409th CSB. “We realized we needed to reach back to the Army Contracting Command for an additional deployable contracting battalion.”
The 923rd Contracting Battalion Headquarters from Fort Riley, Kansas, and elements from the 922nd Contracting Battalion from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, deployed to Romania with limited notice to support the 409th CSB. Once the two units arrived, they organized their disparate parts into a cohesive team to establish Regional Contracting Center Victory South (RCC-VS) at Mihail Kogălniceanu Airbase. Their mission: To plan, execute and assess contracting support for the Victory South area of operations and other forward operating stations in Eastern Europe, thus enabling friendly forces’ ability to reinforce the European theater’s response to Russian aggression.
FORMING, STORMING, NORMING
Combining the mission command capabilities of the 923rd Contracting Battalion and the contracting capabilities of the 922nd Contracting Battalion helped to enhance the already robust capabilities of the 409th CSB. This led to three insights: The key to synchronization is communication; onsite administrative capabilities prevent delays; and building good working relationships is vital.
The first insight, to merge successfully the units had to synchronize different organization and experience levels into one command structure, and that required clear and concise communication, flexibility and ways to mitigate risk. The 923rd Contracting Battalion command team decided to place key leaders from each unit together, combining assessed strengths from the limited available personnel for key positions to mitigate risk from lack of experience.
The battalion then task organized into four elements: two administrative contracting officer teams, a theater contracting section, and a staff element. Initially, there were two procuring contracting officers with level three (advanced) warrants, with another obtaining an under-simplified acquisition threshold warrant approximately three months into the deployment.
A warrant is a contracting officer’s Certificate of Appointment that expressly states the dollar thresholds up to which the warranted contracting officer may sign and obligate money on behalf of the government. It assures the public that the contracting officer has authority to enter into, administer or terminate contracts. Procuring contracting officers receive warrants from their respective agencies to issue legal contracts between the U.S. government and the contracting entity. The administrative contracting officer is responsible for monitoring, evaluating and documenting contractor performance within authorities set by a procuring contracting officer.
In six months, the theater contracting team executed 30 contracts, valued at over $6.5 million, and provided administration for 47 contracts, valued at over $15 million. The administrative contracting teams managed numerous sites across multiple countries and managed a combined portfolio of over $380 million.
However, this only captured a portion of the workload required of a contracting battalion headquarters. Integrating into the 409th CSB’s battle rhythm required multiple briefing requirements, preparation and updates for current, planned and possible future contract actions. Limited personnel covered both contracting and staff functions. Initially falling in on outdated tracking methods, one priority was to revamp an internal contracting tracking system, which allowed the team to clearly articulate to senior leaders the status of the working and awarded contracts, which enabled leaders to make informed decisions and lowered risk.
ON THE WAY: Lt. Col. Randy Garcia, 923rd Contracting Battalion commander speaks to Soldiers and family members during a color casing ceremony before deployment to Romania, Aug. 10, 2022, at Fort Riley, Kansas. Once in Europe, they will be joined by Soldiers from the 922nd Contracting Battalion from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to provide contingency contracting support. (Photo by Maj. Mark Mayor)
VICTORY SOUTH
Victory South spanned portions of several countries, including Romania and Poland. Each location had its own separate administrative contracting concerns under the 923rd Contracting Battalion. The Romania administrative contracting officer team provided support to multiple countries and locations across the Black Sea via the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) V contract vehicle with Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc. and supporting requirements valued at over $80 million. The main requiring activities included the 101st Airborne Division, Area Support Group Black Sea, and Area Support Activity Black Sea.
The Poland administrative contracting officer team supported a $300 million portfolio that included a multitude of unique and distinct units, each with specific and original requirements sprinkled throughout strategically critical locations within Eastern Europe, spanning 13 sites, and thousands of Soldiers, civilians and structures.
Two forward operating stations in Poland that required contracting personnel were, the Remote Maintenance Operations and Distribution Center – Ukraine and Military Aid Contribution Coordination Cell, which directly supported Ukrainian aid. They ensured arriving material reached the right place, at the right time, to support Ukrainian forces. Upon arrival to theater, these locations were at the beginning phases of development, but with coordinated efforts by the requiring activities (quality assurance specialists, contract officer representatives) and contracting officers, the throughput and capacity to provide aid increased exponentially.
The administrative contracting officers received warrants at different stages throughout deployment. The Poland administrative contracting officer team received their warrant first, as their counterpart was first to depart theater. The Romanian administrative contracting officer team received warrants a few weeks into the deployment.
This highlights the second insight, not having approved warrants immediately upon arrival created difficulties achieving effects without delay, requiring reach-back support provided by personnel of the 928th Contracting Battalion in Germany. Once warranted, timeliness of administrative contracting officer actions would continue to be an issue as procuring contracting officer support for LOGCAP V is limited to Central Time Zone business hours. Not having a procuring contracting officer in the mission area and time zone delayed important decisions and fostered a negative perception with the supported units in contracting personnel’s ability to execute efficient and timely contract support.
PRE-DEPLOYMENT: Lt. Col. Randy Garcia, center, and Sgt. Maj. Keita Lyles furl the 923rd Contracting Battalion colors for casing before deployment to Romania, as colors bearer Staff Sgt. Alisha Budhathoki looks on during a ceremony Aug. 10, 2022, at Fort Riley, Kansas. (Photo by Maj. Mark Mayor)
MISSION EXECUTION
As the war continued, DOD began to focus on quality-of-life support for robust formations, ensuring readiness through establishing ample infrastructure to conduct training for NATO and U.S. forces, secure lines of communication throughout the theater and build relations with international partners. Units have government purchase card holders, billing officials, field ordering officers and pay agents to enable deployed units to be self-reliant and provide increased purchasing power. This fulfills their purchasing needs quickly and maintains lower level approval authorities related to contracting, thus relieving dependency on contracting professionals. With few government purchase card holders and billing officials in theater, the lack of options left units seeking contracting support.
Immediately upon arrival, 923rd Contracting Battalion completed key leader engagements with combatant commanders, highlighting a contracting command headquarters is on location and available at all hours. The ability for commanders to talk directly to one another proved invaluable in addressing and solving issues that arose; from resourcing office space and equipment to multiple general officer engagements and briefs across theater – quickly solving quality of life issues for Soldiers on the ground.
This brings us to the third insight, building good working relationships with our sister contracting battalion, and the staff sections at 409th CSB continuously paid dividends during the deployment. Multiple times the contracting office would receive last minute requirements and a simple call for advice provided guidance and notification for incoming reviews. This helped streamline execution and an expedient procurement acquisition lead time. The contracting operations division at the brigade level went above and beyond to help educate and inform our relatively inexperienced contracting team and ensured mission completion while limiting risk. Their patience, expertise and guidance helped inform and direct the team so proper procedures were followed in the execution of the contracts, ensuring the customer received the contract in a timely manner to accomplish their mission.
Limited manning not only impacted contracting support, but also directly affected the supported divisions’ ability to conduct operational contracting support. The biggest roadblock encountered, from a contracting perspective, was the lack of a dedicated operational contracting support integration cell (OCSIC) at the operational level. This cell, while on a theater and field Army’s headquarters Modification Table of Organizational Equipment, is not specifically authorized at a division level. This led to multiple units across theater trying to implement and resource their own contracting solutions through the contracting office, each with their own level of experience and understanding of the U.S. Army Europe Requirements Validation System and the separate requirements package processes and associated timelines. Having an OCSIC, or at a minimum, a designated contract coordinator who gathers all subordinate requirements, checks for document accuracy and submits into paperless contract files would expedite the contract award timeline. It would also allow the supported unit to effectively track and manage all contracts period of performance and option timelines, while also providing a database to enable requirements transfer between rotational units.
CONCLUSION
To support additional division level units in theater, Army Technical Publication 4-71 aligns to a contracting battalion division headquarters to provide mission command over organic contracting detachments and to plan, execute and assess contracting support to theater opening, reception, staging onward movement and integration, and maneuver operations.
While much of contracting theoretically can be done via a reach-back solution, it is immediately apparent the impact quality relationships have on operational effectiveness. Having contracting elements geographically co-located with the supported unit allowed for continuous assessment of the operational environment and integration into supported units’ planning cells to stay abreast of changes to operational requirements.
“The establishment of RCC-VS was a crucible, bringing multiple teams together to establish the groundwork for future success,” said Lt. Col. Randy Garcia, commander of the 923rd Contracting Battalion and Regional Contracting Center Victory South. “Their actions exceeded mission requirements, increased morale and fostered an environment for superb training, relationship building and improved quality of life. I am beyond proud of the character, competence and commitment of my warfighters and their ability to execute to meet the needs of our mission partners.”
For more information about Army contracting, go to https://www.army.mil/acc.
MAJ. EMERY BAUGHAN serves as the executive officer to the commanding general of Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Prior to that, he served as the executive officer, operations officer and lead contracting officer for Regional Contracting Center Victory South from August 2022 to February 2023. He holds a Master of Operational Studies from the Command and General Staff College and an MBA from Webster University. And he is a DAWIA certified contracting professional.
MAJ. ZACH SHUTTE serves as the assistant program manager of XM30 Ground Combat Systems at Detroit Arsenal in Michigan. Prior to that, he served as the Poland administrative contracting officer for Regional Contracting Center Victory South from August 2022 to February 2023. He holds a M.S. in systems engineering management from the Naval Postgraduate School, and he is a DAWIA certified contracting professional.
CONTRIBUTORS:
Maj. Jim Berry, administrative contracting officer, 923rd Contracting Battalion; Maj. Blake Davis, contracting officer, 922nd Contracting Battalion.
