{"id":680,"date":"2023-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=680"},"modified":"2023-03-31T07:10:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T07:10:09","slug":"ausa-symposium-looks-toward-acquisition-priorities-of-2040","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=680","title":{"rendered":"AUSA Symposium looks toward acquisition priorities of 2040"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Introducing new technology like robotic process automation to the workforce can be challenging, but a pilot program can reduce employee skepticism, eliminating the barrier to the adoption of the technology.
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WASHINGTON \u2014 During a contemporary military forum, \u201cMateriel Modernization for the Army of 2040,\u201d at the Association of the U.S. Army Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, Mar. 28, a panel of experts discuss future acquisition priorities.<\/p>\n

With the Army of 2030 quickly approaching, Army acquisitions is taking the next step and looking to the Army of 2040 with an emphasis on the digital transformation of the battlefield and required development processes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be able to react at a speed that paces the threat, and that includes the acquisition world,\u201d said Douglas Bush, the assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for acquisitions, logistics and technology. \u201cThe Army now \u2026 has policies in place that allow us to go more quickly when we need to. We have to do requirements quickly in parallel with upcoming agile acquisition strategies, in parallel with figuring out the funding. Those three things, the under-set requirements, the acquisition approach and funding, aligning those in time, not in sequence, is the hallmark of just the way we\u2019re doing things today.<\/p>\n

The panel consisted of Bush, Dr. Alexis Ross, president of Apex Defense Strategies; Jennifer Swanson, data, engineering, and software lead of the assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for acquisition, logistics and technology; retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr, director of the Center for National Defense with the Heritage Foundation; and John Defourneaux, chief technology officer at Axient.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that the agile acquisition framework and the authorities that are in place will remain there, like the software pathways that the Army\u2019s taking full advantage of right now,\u201d Ross said. \u201cI think systemic advancements are always hard, and you cannot make progress without continuous momentum. So, I\u2019m extremely encouraged and pleased that the Army leadership remains committed to the recent acquisition reform initiatives as well as improving the way it buys systems going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of these reform initiatives, the Army is able to focus a little more on a digital transformation within the Army.<\/p>\n

A digital transformation is important in order for the Army to compete with a near peer adversary, Swanson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to quickly deliver capabilities into Soldiers hands,\u201d she said. \u201cThen, we need to be able to evolve those capabilities based on real-time, changing needs, and digital transformation is our venue to do that!\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea behind a quick evolution of capabilities is an open digital architecture with three main sub-categories; software, DevSecOps or development, security, and operations pipeline and data.<\/p>\n

Software drives almost all of the Army\u2019s systems. These systems need to be upgraded and using agile software development, which is the information technology industry\u2019s best practice, needs to be adopted quickly, Swanson said.<\/p>\n

Agile software development is the practice of delivering updates to software incrementally instead all at once. This allows updates to come on a weekly, monthly or quarterly bases. Whereas, DevSecOps combines development, security, operations and infrastructure as code for security and enabling faster software delivery.<\/p>\n

The second part of an open architecture is the DevSecOps pipeline. The Army then can put the agile code in this DevSecOps pipeline and start automating things that are done manually right now, Swanson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween those two elements, it enables us to pump out high-quality code very quickly,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re putting [contract requests] out for software-based capabilities, we are starting to evaluate not just the solution but also the ability of the company to be agile because that is critical. So, as requirements change, how is the company able to keep up with those changes and modify the code on the fly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last piece of it is digital engineering,\u201d Swanson said. \u201cWhere we want to be is digital engineering end to end. I\u2019m working to build that strategy in terms of how we get there, what are the things we need to do first, second, third and the incremental strategy that\u2019s needed to show some progress along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, the Army is serious about its digital transformation but needs help from the IT industry, she said.<\/p>\n

Some of the other technologies that the Army is looking for are advanced manufacturing, applying modern digital approaches and capabilities, like artificial intelligence or AI, to design and production systems, robotics, and directed energy systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news, on directed energy systems, is that the science and tech is finally to the point where we are getting things that are usable on the battlefield,\u201d Bush said.<\/p>\n

However, the next step is to figure out how to produce the directed energy systems and the ground robotics where they are affordable on a mass production scale, he said.<\/p>\n

With all of these upgrades and need for future technology also comes a need for money and the problems that may come from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Army has kind of gotten out of the habit of thinking about how do you fund big programs,\u201d Spoehr said. \u201cThe last big acquisitions were in the 80s, where they were actively procuring Abrams, Bradley and some other programs. Those were multibillion-dollar per year acquisitions. The Army has had the luxury in the last decade or two of just modifying what they had. These new build acquisition costs are going to be tremendous, and they’re going to cause a lot of pressure within the Army. If the Army continues to receive flat budgets, I’m pessimistic about how that all works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, Spoehr said that he has noticed how the acquisition community is being more upfront with how successfully different programs are faring.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Bush] was speaking and he, upfront, mentioned that there were four Army programs that were not experiencing tremendous success,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought that was wonderful. I think we have to continue that kind of open dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the Army will rely on the private sector to help reach the end goal of the Army of 2040.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Army] by itself, there\u2019s not enough money, or enough people there to achieve everything we need to achieve,\u201d Bush said. \u201cAs always, we rely on and depend on the amazingly innovative American private sector to be where most of our innovations come from. That is an enduring American advantage. But I can say with confidence that the Army knows it needs that from the private sector to get where we need to get.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introducing new technology like robotic process automation to the workforce can be challenging, but a pilot program can reduce employee skepticism, eliminating the barrier to the adoption of the technology. (Photo Credit: Image by sorbetto\/Getty Images) VIEW ORIGINAL WASHINGTON \u2014 During a contemporary military forum, \u201cMateriel Modernization for the Army of 2040,\u201d at the Association […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":683,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}