Since the Army’s earliest days, NCOs have driven transformation by identifying requirements, and they are still driving transformation today, a panel of senior enlisted leaders said.

“The NCO at the tactical edge can help with our scientists, except the scientists are building things in a nice little clean laboratory, and [NCOs] are out there rolling up their sleeves in the dirt … [and] giving candid feedback on form, factor, functionality, all the little things that they're going to try to break,” said Command Sgt. Maj. T.J. Holland, senior enlisted leader for Army Forces Command.

In remarks during a recent panel discussion at the Association of the U.S. Army's Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama, Holland was joined by Command Sgt. Maj. Brian Hester of Army Futures Command and Command Sgt. Maj. Raymond Harris of Army Training and Doctrine Command to talk about the role of the NCO in driving transformation.

Using the 82nd Airborne Division as an example, Holland said, “if you want to find out if something works, you can put it in the hands of an 82nd paratrooper. They're purpose-built to break things, right? That’s exactly what the NCO’s role is out there, to make sure that it doesn't break in times of need when you're in a two-way live-fire.”

The Army, Holland said, is “exponentially learning” by having elevated foundational training to the division level and putting “divisions in the dirt” to experiment, assess and validate new technology.

NCOs can play a “huge role” in organizational innovation, too, Hester said. “When we bring a new capability to the formation, we might think that we're going to use it and fight with it in one way, and when we deliver it and [NCOs] take it to the dirt to start to use it, … where are they seeing opportunities organizationally to change?” Hester said. “Is the rifle squad we have today going to be the same rifle squad we’ll have five or 20 years from now?”

With the proliferation of experimentation on equipment and even formations, Harris pointed out that at some point, it’s got to come together in doctrine and the codification of systems.

“There’s lots of experimentation and testing all these things, but then we’ve got to have the team that triages it and determines what needs to be doctrine, what doesn't need to be doctrine, what's good for just a unit to have as a [tactic, technique and procedure] or a local standard operating procedure, and what actually informs how we're going to train this and develop the materiel that's going to go on the battlefield for our soldiers,” Harris said.

Harris also pointed out that, while some formations have been designated as transformation in contact units with a mission to test, experiment, evaluate and give feedback on cutting-edge equipment and technology, every formation should be combat-ready and lethal.

He noted that NCOs should be thinking about how their formations are organized with the equipment they have on hand and how they’ll be successful in combat. “You may not get that kit for 10 years,” he said. “Let the transformation in contact formations really focus on that for you, that's what they're designed and why they were picked to do it.”