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Home >> Headline News - 2007 Archive >> Reports from AUSA Winter Symposium and Exposition Email this... Email    Print this Print


Reports from AUSA Winter Symposium and Exposition

Top Stories from the symposium

  • Army investment account ‘needs a big bump up’
  • Technology advances making a difference in soldiers’ lives now
  • Army is in largest equipment building period in U.S. history
  • Medical advances dramatically reduce killed in action rate
  • Organization focuses on ‘trying to change the gray matter’
  • Secretary presents AUSA with ‘Coin of the United States Army’

  • TACOM changes the way it does business
  • TRADOC working hand in glove with operational force
  • AMC adopted civilian practices to its business practices
  • TRADOC looks at new ways to communicate with young people
  • 9/11 changed focus of Special Operations Command

  • FCS will tailor balance between offense and defense




    Army investment account ‘needs a big bump up.’

    Science and technology “needs a big bump up” in funding and “we cannot lose our focus that the Army has to modernize,” the vice president for education at the Association of the United States Army told more than 500 attendees at a symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

    Speaking March 7 at the AUSA event, Lt. Gen. Theodore Stroup, USA, Ret., said that while operations and maintenance accounts “are a vital part of the budget,” paying salaries and for training, the investment accounts – science and technology and research and development -- have traditionally been on a roller coaster ride.

    This has led a $56 billion shortfall in procurement that the Army and Congress are addressing, Stroup said.

    He said that in 2000 an AUSA report said that research and development spending was in “a death spiral” and that spending needed to rise from 1.3 percent of the Army’s budget to 3 percent. Stroup added hat percentage has not changed in the course of the seven years since the report was published.

    “We took a strategic risk with [under funding] R&D.”

    Stroup said that the Army’s share of the defense budget needed to rise from 24 percent to 28 percent to pay for the larger force the Army envisions, provide these soldiers with and their families with housing, ranges to train on, etc.

    What the Army and the nation have learned since then is that “the battlefield is asymmetric and war is expensive.” He said that it cost about $1,000 to train and equip a soldier in the Vietnam era and more than $17,000 today.

    Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, USA, Ret., and AUSA president said that similar to the investment accounts, the institutional Army (Army Materiel Command, Training and Doctrine Command and the Medical Command) “has taken heavy, heavy hits.”

    He added that the Army needed to grow beyond the projected 547,000 in the active force over the next four years. He said the number “should be approaching 700,000” to provide the operational Army with enough soldiers to meet the national security strategy and rebuild the institutional Army.

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    Technology advances making a difference in soldiers’ lives now

    The command sergeant major of the 4th Infantry Division said that increased emphasis on force protection, better optics and improved situational awareness down to the platoon level made a difference for his soldiers during their recent deployment to Iraq.

    Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Ronald Riling said, “24 years ago, I received my steel pot,” a vessel he could wash in, heat water and bathe, then he was issued a Kevlar helmet, “couldn’t shave in it, heat water in it and bathe in it, but it could absorb a bullet.”

    Adding, “The Army has made great strides in protecting our soldiers” since the days of steel pots and flak jackets.

    Citing the Rapid Fielding Initiative’s quick fielding of the new Army combat unit as an example of protecting the force, “it was unique because it was designed by soldiers for soldiers.” Riling also cited the new combat helmet as a step forward in protecting soldiers, as well as the better clotting bandages and tourniquets that are saving soldiers lives.

    From improved sights in Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the sights on a soldier’s weapon, the Army “is moving from iron sights to new optics” that allow them to operate day or night on the three-dimensional battlefield that is urban combat.

    The division area of operations included Baghdad and four surrounding provinces.

    Riling said the improved situational awareness came from installing Blue Force tracking devices and Force XXI Battle Command and Control for Brigades and Below in almost all vehicles so soldiers knew where potential trouble spots were. When combined with better optics, soldiers had a better chance of eliminating snipers and returning safely to base.

    He added that voice over Internet protocol technology has eliminated the need for couriers having to move from one forward operating base to another to report on changing conditions. “You have real-time reporting sent from the battalion down to the camp” and soldiers “can be out the gates in as little as 60 minutes” in response.

    Maj. Gen. Richard Rowe, deputy director for the Training and Doctrine Command’s Capabilities Integration Center, said to keep meeting soldiers’ needs in the future there are two questions that should be asked continuously: “Who will we face” and where will we operate?”

    Adding, “We believe a future adversary will counter us … with low technology” so they will be “masters of their environment. They will be unpredictable.”

    He added, “Experimentation is central to what we do” and “red teaming is very important to us. The question is: have we portrayed the adversary accurately – technologically, culturally” and set that adversary ‘in the broader environment in which we will work.”

    “We must equip the man, not man the equipment,” Riling said.


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    Army is in largest equipment building period in U.S. history

    The Army is in the greatest equipment building period “our nation has ever seen,” but there shouldn’t be a bump as the Army continues down the road of modernization and transformation, according to the director of force development for the Army deputy chief of staff.
    Brig. Gen. Charles A. Anderson told Army and industry leaders at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exhibition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that the equipment soldiers receive continues to be improved, but funding has to be on time and predictable if that is going to continue.


    Factoring by current rates, a soldier in World War II had $1,500 worth of equipment while today’s soldier is being outfitted with more than $17,000 worth of equipment, Anderson said.

    “To get equipment into the hands of soldiers, your funding has to be on time,” Anderson said. “Equipment today takes a long time” from the time a contract is awarded to when that new equipment actually reaches the field.

    When money is not on time, it can have a ripple affect more than a year down the road, he said.

    Procurement of high-demand items has increased drastically since 2001, Anderson said. For example, radio procurement has gone from 233 a month to 6,000; M-4 carbines from 717 to 6,700; up-armored Humvees from 30 to 1,000; and night vision goggles from 700 to 6,000.
    While more equipment is needed to fill the needs of today’s Army, not everything is new, Anderson said. The Army is moving equipment “to fill holes” as units inactivate.

    The Army reserve components were short of equipment as the war started but is now on track to be properly equipped, Anderson said.

    “They are receiving equipment at an unprecedented rate,” he said.

    As the Army transforms, the result will be a more capable force – one that can “stand alone,” Anderson said. It will see advancements in areas such as night vision goggles, trucks, weapons and thermal weapons sights, but that funding can’t be channeled to pay for equipment needed today.

    “You can’t mortgage the future to pay for the current [force],” he said.
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    Medical advances dramatically reduce killed in action rate

    Recent medical advances have had a huge affect in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters, dramatically reducing the killed in action rate, according one of the Army’s top medical researchers.

    The KIA rate now is significantly less than what soldiers faced in Vietnam, Korea and World War II, said John F. Glenn, director of research and development for U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.

    Speaking March 7 at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exhibition, Glenn said there has been more of a focus on training medics and regular soldiers on first aid because they are the first on scene to help an injured soldier. Response “in the first 10 minutes” has the biggest impact on that soldier’s treatment -- trained physicians can’t provide care until after the soldier is brought back to a field hospital or other medical facility.

    And transporting injured soldiers out of those high-risk zones has been addressed by upgrading current armored vehicles, including a modified “RhinoRunner” armored bus, Glenn said. These vehicles have helped in the process of getting patients out of theater “within hours” if necessary treatment can’t be done in the area of responsibility.

    Medical researchers also found that the ratio of packed red blood cells to plasma used when treating wounded soldiers needed to be changed, Glenn said. The standard had been a ratio of 3:1 of blood cells to plasma, but they found ratio of 1:1 was “dramatically more effective … perhaps as much as 30 percent.”

    This also reduces the chance of long-lasting disabilities after treatment, Glenn said.

    Further advances will be seen at Brooke Army Medical Center this summer as medical personnel there will apply the latest in tissue regeneration technology to wounded soldiers, Glenn said.

    War is also a demanding environment for mental health, Glenn said. Under life-threatening conditions, the brain and nervous system go into “hyper drive” – reaction times are shortened, the brain directs the release of stress hormones, and there’s an increase in what the doctor calls “hyper vigilance.”

    While this state might be ideal for combat, it’s not so ideal for post-deployment life activities such as driving or just dealing with the stresses of every day life, he said. Studies have shown that humans can’t just “turn off” this condition.

    This year, the research findings have been put into practice in the form of “battle mind training,” Glenn said. This helps soldiers understand that how they reacted in the stress of battle needs to be re-adjusted after returning from deployment.

    Medical science and technology is about “taking knowledge from our scientific endeavors and turning them into solutions whether they are products or changes in the practice of medicine,” Glenn said.

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    Organization focuses on ‘trying to change the gray matter’

    A small Army organization of about 125 people is focusing on what’s between a soldier’s ears.

    “We’re trying to change the gray matter – the way he thinks, the way he behaves,” said Stephen L. Goldberg, chief of the simulator systems research unit for the Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.


    Speaking March 7 at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Goldberg said researchers want to teach soldiers “not what to think but how to think.

    “We do that through the use of behavioral and social science techniques to affect personnel procedures, training and leader development methods,” he said.

    In this global war on terror, the Army needs adaptive soldiers who can think effectively, Goldberg said, whether it is junior enlisted or senior leaders.

    “They have to be socially aware, they have to be able to make good decisions, and they also need a degree of cultural awareness to deal with the populace,” Goldberg said.

    Training areas include:

    Bilateral skills training. This prepares soldiers on what’s to be expected in negotiations, which is critical as they deal on a day-to-day basis with local leaders.

    Think like a commander. Soldiers are given vignettes, and they list concepts on how to approach them. They are able to think quicker on their feet because they gradually reduce the time it takes to come up with the concepts.

    Army excellence in leadership. Soldiers watch movies which are layered with tactical, leadership and tactical issues.There are also opportunities for interaction to deal with character issues.

    The goal is for soldiers to have a broad experience base prior to deployment so that when they first come across a situation in the field, “they will feel like they’ve been there before,” Goldberg said.


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    Secretary presents AUSA with ‘Coin of the United States Army’ for serving soldiers, families and the Army

    As one of his final acts as secretary of the Army, Francis Harvey expressed his thanks to the Association of the United States Army “for what you have done for the past 57 years” for soldiers, their families and the Army in general and presented the association’s president for the membership with the “Coin of the United States Army.”

    He was speaking at AUSA’s winter symposium and exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., March 8.

    Harvey, who resigned March 2, mentioned AUSA’s grassroots support and the work of its chapters for the Army and cited AUSA for being “our professional organization. We know you will be there in the future.”

    In his remarks, Harvey said that the five major challenges facing the Army in the future were keeping the force ready for the full spectrum of operations, managing the stress of the force, growing the force, protecting the force and building the Army of the future.

    “If you look back from 1999 who could have predicted” the high operating tempo and Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom and “who can predict” what the future will hold.

    Harvey said that it was important to keep the force fully equipped and to reset it to avoid repeating the $56 billion shortfall in equipment that the Army faced in 2003. By steadily budgeting for equipment over the next five years, the shortfall will be $9 billion.

    He said that 117,000 pieces of equipment need to be reset now and the Army is projecting in the near future to have to reset 200,000 pieces of equipment.

    “We’re building the Army of the future through force and business transformation and modernization” with the fielding of the Future Combat Systems and upgraded aviation systems and new fleets of helicopters.

    The Army plans to spin technologies into the current force as well as changing doctrine starting in the next two years through 2015 when it will field an FCS brigade, Harvey said.

    On FCS, the Army’s largest modernization program, he said that it was vitally important for the service. “We will have a much better Army, an Army that saves soldiers’ lives” because FCS has been fielded.

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    TACOM changes the way it does business

    Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Life Cycle Management Command (TACOM) has made a change over the past three years in the way it does business.

    The command has taken in three program executive offices – soldier, ground combat systems, and combat support and combat service support – so those program managers “own” those systems throughout their life cycles.

    “We keep our systems for a long time; we continually evolve them,” said Maj. Gen. William M. Lenaers, TACOM commander.

    Speaking March 8 at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Symposium and Exhibition, Lenaers said program managers now handle everything that relates to their system, from soldiers’ uniforms and weapons to support equipment and spare parts. The managers can integrate new changes and upgrades as they become available.

    Most of the money – about 72 percent -- in a system’s life cycle is wrapped up in sustainment, or the overall operation and support of that system. And those funds are earmarked primarily for buying new parts, so the command has partnered with industry for supply chains to ensure program managers have the latest, modern parts.

    For example, partnerships with DLA and AM General ensures depots don’t “put out a 1980s Humvee,” Lenaers said. Not only are the vehicles outfitted with the latest equipment, the process has created a “tremendous cost savings,” and the command is producing about four times as many Humvees “than we’ve ever done before.”

    TACOM is also responsible for Strykers, which are relatively new to the Army. But the vehicles being turned out now are vastly different from the first vehicles that were produced, Lenaers said. He talked to a soldier about what could be done to improve the Stryker, and out of the 12 points the soldier listed, 10 were already in the works.

    “We are very rapidly evolving how we operate to reflect what is happening with our soldiers in the battlefield and how we have to react to the needs of our customers,” Lenaers said.

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    TRADOC working hand in glove with operational force

    The deputy commander of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command compared his organization to the pit crew of a NASCAR team who “can’t guarantee you will win, but it can make you lose.”

    Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, speaking with reporters at the Association of the United States Army’s winter symposium and exhibition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., March 7, said TRADOC “has to work hand in glove with the operational force” in the same way it has traditionally worked with the acquisition community.

    What has changed in the recent years has been the explosion of the information age. Metz was a former division commander during the Army Force XXI experiments in the late 1990s where Blue Force tracking and Force XXI Battle Command for Brigade and Below were first being introduced.

    “It dawned on my in my Force XXI days that we’ve never been here before” in the ways information was being used and could be used,” he said.

    “The information age is expensive and requires a lot of testing, but it gives a soldier a lot of extra combat power.” Drawing on his experience as a corps commander in Iraq, he used the example of being able to move a Stryker unit 500 miles from Mosul to al Kut in 24 hours to quell the insurgency there and then having a Stryker battalion acting on real-time intelligence move 60 more miles to stop a weapons smuggling operation near the Iranian border.

    “I want every soldier to make a difference. …I want soldiers [using information age hardware and software] to take the initiative --- scanning, focusing and acting.”

    He added that one of the big ideas emerging from the Force XXI experiment was situational awareness. “It’s great to have, but understanding is the next level.”

    Metz said the command is trying to reduce the time new equipment is introduced and soldiers’ ability to use it effectively and better use of ideas that are flowing from the field into the requirements process so that it is not only coming from the top down.. “We’ve got to understand how young people learn today.” Adding, they “teach themselves a lot.”

    Speaking the next day at the AUSA symposium, Gen. Ben Griffin, commander of the Army Materiel Command, said, “I don’t think of anything we’ve done better” through the Rapid Fielding Initiative. “We are providing quality uniforms and products.”

    Looking at the Army, Metz said, “It is our educational process that has made a difference,” but the officer, warrant officer and noncommissioned officer educational systems are feeling the pressures of the continuing high operating tempo.

    To help with NCOES in cases where it makes sense, TRADOC is sending training teams to soldiers at their home stations to give them the class work there.

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    AMC adopted civilian practices to its business practices

    The commanding general of the Army Materiel Command told attendees at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter symposium, “We went to school on the private sector” in learning how to apply best business practices to everything the command does.


    Speaking March 8 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Gen. Benjamin Griffin noted that four depots were recognized nationally for their efforts in implementing Lean Six Sigma practices to more efficiently deliver their products with a goal of constant improvement. Last year one Army depot was so recognized.

    “Much of this has to do not only with what the Army is doing but what the other services,” he said., but “sustainment in combat is essential. …We need to make sure we know how to repair it and have the spare parts” for the equipment that is shipped into the field and the equipment that is used in training.

    “The key is the work force” buying into the changes; and they have been involved in the product improvement teams that examines the processes for specific projects. “They know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.”

    Griffin said that the Army was continuing to examine how to use commercial off the shelf technology.

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    TRADOC looks at new ways to communicate with young people


    “We need to think about new ways to communicate” with young people, the commanding general of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command said March 8.

    Gen. William Scott Wallace, speaking March 8 at the Association of the United States Army’s winter symposium and exhibition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said for recruiting that means looking at other media, such as text messaging, than television ads to attract young men and women to join the Army.

    “Education is still the greatest motivator to join the Army,” he said, and this is true despite a lower propensity to enlist among people and the impact of the war on terrorism.

    “Eighty-four thousand seven is the stretch goal for recruiting this year.”

    Looking at other ways of communicating with young people is entering the Army school house as well. Adult learning models are being used in the intermediate officer courses and pilots are being run at Fort Sill, Okla., and Fort Gordon, Ga., in the captain’s courses using experiential learning techniques. These techniques include “some hands on and some distributive learning. Distributive learning can not be a pre-requisite for attendance, but it will be for graduation.”

    The command is paying for the pilots, but Wallace said he was not sure that the changes would cost more than existing programs.

    Wallace said the command is also looking at Advanced Individual Training that would see some soldiers graduating early because they had mastered the course. The question is: Can we change the way we do business … without sacrificing our standards.”

    Meeting with reporters later the same day, he said that TRADOC experimented with the concept in basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., in the fall and some soldiers were graduated in seven weeks instead of nine.

    “Typically you find peer leaders in basic training companies, and we were concerned that if we moved the peer leaders the others would suffer,” but that turned out not to be the case. Other soldiers stepped forward and became leaders.

    Wallace said that it was TRADOC’s plan to do this in basic training companies in the future, in part, because the recruits need time to transition from being civilians to being soldiers.

    “My personal bias is for nine weeks” of basic training. “AIT is a different animal because they have gone through the soldierization process, have an understanding what Army values are. I think this is a better thing to do in AIT,” but not for all military occupation specialties,” he said.

    “It’s not just a question of graduating them early. It is a question of … moving soldiers to the operational Army” with the skills they need and better support the Army Force Generation Model.

    Wallace told the reporters that the Army needs 4,500 lieutenants from all sources – ROTC, the Military Academy and Officer Candidate School. To meet that need, the Army has added another OCS company.

    He said that a manual covering full spectrum operations is due out in a few months and another on information operations is being written.

    At the same time, Wallace said that TRADOC is reorganizing along the same “G lines” used in the Army staff and other commands.

    Wallace said, “We still have a capacity issue” in sending units to the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif.; Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, La.; the Combat Maneuver Center at Hohenfels, Germany; and Camps Attebury, Ind., and McCoy, Wis.

    “We also realize that we cannot build another center.”

    To meet the need, the command is taking training to the units before they deploy either at their home stations or remote locations.

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    9/11 changed focus of Special Operations Command

    “Nine/11 came and things changed for Special Operations Command in Tampa” from training and equipping foreign militaries to “we are synchronizing the global war on terrorism,” its senior commander told attendees at the Association of the United States Army Winter Symposium and Exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

    Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown, speaking March 8, said his 20-year-old organization “is probably the most misunderstood command” in the Defense Department. About 7,500 of the commands 50,000 service members are deployed in 50 countries.

    To meet the change in emphasis, Brown said that 15,000 more service members will be added to the command by Fiscal Year 2013, a predator UAV squad and some battalions of Green Berets.

    Brown said there were two approaches to the war on terrorism – the direct that “buys time” for the indirect approach of “building good governance to change the environment.”

    He said an example of direct action would be driving the Taliban from an area and the indirect would be having civil affairs service members giving out food, establishing media and conducting psychological operations to influence future action of the civilian populace.

    In terms of critical programs for the future, Brown said in special operations it often comes down to a matter of “we need it when we need it.” Adding, “we’ve got to have speed on the battlefield” in terms of vertical lift.”

    At the same time, Brown said the command’s fleet of C-130s is aging because of the high operating tempo and that changes made in up-armoring Humvees made them too heavy for today’s Chinooks.

    “We’re part of the problem in not telling exactly what we need.”

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    FCS will tailor balance between offense and defense

    The Future Combat Systems program will allow the Army to dominate across the entire spectrum and tailor the balance of the Army between offense and defense, according to Lt. Gen. John M. Curran.

    The general, who is director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center for Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), led a panel discussing FCS capabilities March 9 at the Association of the United States Army’s Winter Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
    FCS is the key in modernizing the Army, and it’s “absolutely critical” as the information age has made the entire globe a battle region, Curran said.

    During a recent FCS test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and Fort Bliss, Texas, soldiers reported they were “impressed” with the FCS equipment they worked with and wanted to take it back to their home units, according to Col. Patrick Lee Fetterman, FCS capability manager for TRADOC. The scenario allowed a platoon of soldiers to experience the capabilities of smaller unmanned aerial vehicles, ground vehicles and sensors as they went through a building complex searching for the enemy.

    During the scenario, soldiers avoided an area after a video camera on an unmanned ground vehicle picked up a trip wire for an IED; sensors the soldiers had placed in a building alerted them to enemy troops coming back into the building behind them; and another ground sensor that had been placed before the operation notified the soldiers when an enemy vehicle moved into the area.

    A major test will occur this summer at WSMR/Bliss with live fire on moving and stationary vehicles, said Maj. Gen. Charles A. Cartwright, program manager for the FCS brigade combat team. This will be a “critical year” for FCS as components will soon be released as “spin outs” ready for use in the field.

    FCS testing has marked a milestone for the Army because designers and software engineers are working directly with soldiers in developing new components.

    Almost 50 different test activities are ongoing and involve more than 600 companies, said Dennis A. Muilenburg, Boeing’s FCS program manager. For example, General Dynamics has been testing a 120mm cannon, a breech mortar debuted at BAE’s facility and testing on diesel engines has shown “dramatic” fuel savings.

    Friendly foreign nations are also looking at modernizing their forces with “FCS like” equipment, said Maj. Gen. Roger A Naeau, commander of Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM). While they don’t have the budget to duplicate the entire FCS, “we are guiding them on ways to best use their money” for more limited components.

    People working at RDECOM’s international technology centers hope to steer those countries so that whatever they come up with has interoperability with U.S. FCS technology, Nadeau said.

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