Seizing on growing momentum across the force, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer is working to speed and expand the Army’s efforts to transform for the next fight.

“It’s pretty exciting times right now,” Weimer said.

The first iteration of the Army’s transforming in contact initiative, which puts new technology in soldiers’ hands for testing, experimentation and feedback, was successful, and the force has “bought in,” Weimer said. The challenge now is to scale it beyond the three brigade combat teams involved in the initial effort. “I can tell you … it’s caused a fire, and everybody’s hungry to be part of transforming in contact, which now becomes a great problem,” Weimer said. “How do you take that and accelerate it across an entire Army?”

From budget restrictions to how quickly industry can produce new capabilities the Army wants, the service is performing a balancing act as it seeks to stay ahead of rapidly evolving technology and an increasingly volatile security environment. “The budget is what the budget is. Inflation is still what it is. Our top line is still what it is,” Weimer said. “We’re still being asked to do more, we haven’t been asked to do less globally, and so that is our wicked problem of our time.”

That said, the Army’s transformation, as outlined in the Army Transformation Initiative, is critical, Weimer said. Announced on May 1, the Army Transformation Initiative seeks to make big changes in force structure, weaponry, platforms and acquisition processes to build a leaner and more lethal force. “Some of this is … going to change how we do business as an Army and as a Department of Defense, to make sure that we’re not keeping up with the pacing threat, but we’re outrunning the pacing threat,” Weimer said. “Keeping up is like talking about minimum standards. We’ve got to outpace the pacing threat, and we think [the Army Transformation Initiative] is going to be one of those things that helps us figure that out.”

After what Weimer called the “catastrophic success” of the first iteration of transformation in contact, the Army is pivoting to focus more heavily on people skills. “The beginning of transformation in contact was super heavy on things, stuff, drones, 3D printing and [Infantry Squad Vehicles] and the Next Generation Squad Weapon and rifles and [night-vision devices] and rightly so,” Weimer said.

Focus on Soldier

But now, much of the Army’s efforts will focus on the soldier. “What we’re learning from the first transforming in contact is ‘Holy cow, the people skills are just as important, if not more,’ ” Weimer said.

As an NCO, “the stuff is always going to be coming, and it’s always going to be more advanced, and it’s going to be the speed in which it’s coming, it’s just insane,” Weimer said. Without “the right troopers with the right skill sets,” Army units will not be as effective.

“We’re never going to outgrow the basics,” Weimer said. “When you take a formation that has standards and discipline, is fully committed and good at the fundamentals, brilliant at the basics, I don’t care if you change the thing every two weeks, they’re ready to adjust to the new thing.”

To illustrate the Army’s focus on soldier skills, the service is experimenting with a 15X MOS, which merges the 15W, tactical unmanned aircraft system operator, and 15E, tactical unmanned aircraft system repairer, MOSs into one.

New Jobs

Instead of creating this new MOS at a center of excellence, the Army is building and experimenting with it in the 25th Infantry Division, Weimer said.

“We’ve tasked them to rethink fundamental skills training,” Weimer said. While some 15 series soldiers have been working inside the transforming in contact brigades, the Army has not stopped recruiting traditional 15 series soldiers, he said. Initially, those soldiers were brought in to operate the RQ-7B Shadow, but that platform has been retired from the Army.

“The 15 series we recruited to run the Shadow in a truck box on an airfield is not what we’ve been doing for the last year and a half in these [transforming in contact] brigades,” Weimer said.

Instead, they’re putting on face paint, carrying a 60-pound rucksack and experimenting on drones alongside the vendor in an Infantry Squad Vehicle, Weimer said.

“That’s not the recruiting pitch they got when they came in,” Weimer said. “Some of them are loving it. Some of them are not. We don’t want to lose those troopers, so what do we do with them?”

The Army also is seeing some infantry soldiers pick up drone skills, and some of them love it so much that they want to retrain into a 15 series MOS, Weimer said.

Identifying and building the right people skills is crucial, Weimer said. “The things are going to come,” he said. “If a money truck showed up tomorrow, and we had unlimited UASs, unlimited [Infantry Squad Vehicles], the bottom line is you’re still giving it to the same person. What have we done to make sure that that person is ready for all that new technology?”

The 15X pilot program, which took place in August, is just the beginning, Weimer said. “It’s not a pilot to figure out whether we’re doing this,” he said. “It’s a pilot to figure out how to make it work. That’s the important piece. We already know we have to do this.”

If the 15X pilot program is successful, the Army will have a defined model for how to expand similar programs for other MOSs, Weimer said, adding that the Army has “a lot of MOSs we’ve got to do this with,” including some of its signal and cyber specialties.

Transformation Lessons

As the Army moves forward with transformation and looks for faster, more streamlined ways to test and acquire new capabilities, it is sharing its lessons with the rest of the joint force and others, Weimer said. “We have to,” he said. “We’ve got to get industry understanding why this is important. We’ve got to get academia understanding why this is important. We’ve got to get America to understand why this is important … and we’ve got to get buy-in from the troopers to want to stay and be the benefactors of [the Army Transformation Initiative].”

Army senior leaders want these efforts to be sustainable long past their tenures, Weimer said. “Which is why if the troopers don’t buy in, then it’s just going to fail,” he said. “And I’m excited because they’re all bought in.”

Weimer acknowledged uncertainty among some troops and units about what the future holds or how transformation may impact them. “That’s natural,” he said. “That’s to be expected. What I refuse to do is not tell them something.”

The challenge is trying to navigate resources, timing and other factors, Weimer said. As an example, if the Army must operate under another congressional continuing resolution, a stopgap measure that keeps funding at the previous year’s level and limits the start of new programs, any plans will have to change, he said. “The details that everybody’s dying for are really always going to be in pencil, not pen,” Weimer said. “They’re not going to be in ink because we have so many variables.”

That’s where the idea of continuous transformation comes in, Weimer said. “You’re continually changing—same azimuth, same pace, same objective, to transform the Army and to never, ever be behind, which means it’s continuous,” he said.

Some may find this uncertainty uncomfortable, Weimer said. “There’s some serious culture change that’s happening,” he said.

Gathering Innovations

Another challenge for the Army is pulling together all the good ideas and innovations taking place across the force. “We said, ‘Get after it. We’re going to support you,’ and innovation labs just popped up,” Weimer said. “It was amazing what the talented people we attract are doing with the guidance to get after it, transform and increase your lethality.”

Now, the Army must get its arms around the disparate efforts. “We have to merge that into one to truly understand. … What are the real requirements?” Weimer said.

In addition to people skills, the Army must continue to provide soldiers with tough, realistic training, Weimer said. “We exist to fight and win,” he said. “If we can’t fight and win, then everything else we’re doing is for naught.”

This includes improving the quality and challenge of home station training all the way through to the combat training centers. “You can’t just go to a [combat training center] to get good,” Weimer said. “We have to get back to being able to get good at home station training.” This includes being able to train with drones, counter-drone systems and conducting realistic, tough training at home, he said. “Not all our home stations are equal … so there’s a full-court press to transform home station training,” he said.

With quality home station training, by the time a unit gets to a combat training center, it should be ready to compete like it’s the Olympics, Weimer said. He credited the combat training centers and opposing forces that put rotating units to the test during every rotation. Those opposing forces, nicknamed Blackhorse at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, and Geronimo at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, have a pivotal role, Weimer said. “Who has more reps and sets than them?” Weimer said. “We don’t talk a lot about how they’re helping us as an Army learn how to fight based off lessons observed in Ukraine, Gaza and [the Middle East].”

To enable soldiers to focus on training, the Army is pushing to relieve soldiers of unnecessary administrative requirements and improving training management. “The Army is magnificent at adding, and we are horrific at subtracting, because we just think we can do everything,” Weimer said.

There is a breaking point, Weimer said, “which is why we’re shifting heavily to make sure that we’ve got the troopers that have the cognitive capacity, if you will, to be able to do more.” Artificial intelligence and technology will help relieve some of soldiers’ cognitive fatigue, but “we’re not there yet,” Weimer said.

Added Responsibility

The Army asks a lot of its NCOs, Weimer said. “It used to be pretty simple to be a squad leader,” he said. “But now, I need you to be really good at all the things that I was required to be good at, and I need you to be an electronic warfare specialist. I need you to understand software updates.”

If soldiers are overwhelmed, readiness will suffer, as will their fundamental skills, Weimer said.

“We want to go faster,” Weimer said about transformation efforts. “But how much is too much for the formations to where we don’t drop off … in the basics and fundamentals? So, we’re watching that closely.”

As the Army transforms and fosters the skills it needs for tomorrow, NCOs will play a key role, Weimer said. “The noncommissioned officers are going to be the people in the formation who make [the Army Transformation Initiative] and all things transforming in contact successful,” he said.

The NCO has always been “critical to any success we’ve ever had in the Army for 250 years,” Weimer said. “Right now, with what we’re doing, with the advancement of technology and the speed in which the character of war is changing, if we don’t keep investing in the NCO, we could get behind.”