REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command invests in developing the Army’s next generation of engineers as well as expanding the growth of space and missile defense capabilities in the Huntsville area.

Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler, USASMDC commanding general, said during an Association of the U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal Chapter community leader breakfast, Sept. 22, that one of the command’s initiatives to develop new talent for the Army is the SMDC Underserved Community Cybersecurity and Engineering Education Development program. 

SUCCEED targets historically black colleges and universities and underserved communities in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, as well as, cybersecurity-based careers to create a diverse talent pipeline to meet the needs of the federal government and its industry partners.

“SUCCEED attracts those young men and women who are getting their degrees in the STEM fields and are interested in coming and supporting air and missile defense and space,” Karbler said. “It has been wildly successful. SUCCEED is an opportunity to attract this talent, and if you spend a day with these interns you see what these great young men and women want to do in serving our country.”

The Department of Defense Science Math and Research Transformation program is an initiative that allows USASMDC to bring in college students from around the nation to intern with the command.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the outreach we have had with the youth to bring them into our mission areas,” Karbler said. “Hopefully they will get attracted to the Huntsville area and will settle here and start a new generation of professionals and experts.”

The command is not only growing its personnel talent but is also expanding facilities by opening its Technical Center’s Technology Complex on Redstone Arsenal in support of science and technology in the near future.

“Here in a couple of months we will be opening up the Directed Energy Systems Integration Lab,” Karbler said. “We are really going to be able to leverage that capability right in our back yard to be able to do a lot of directed energy work.” 

USASMDC is also moving forward to stand up a 163-acre acre technology complex that will house an air and missile defense laboratory.

“There is a lot of positive forward momentum within the command here in the Huntsville area to help build on the increases we are going to have in the mission sets for air and missile defense and Army space,” he said.
Marc Jacobson, AUSA Redstone Arsenal Chapter executive vice president, thanked Karbler for attending and said the purpose of the breakfast is to have senior Redstone Arsenal and other community and business leaders update the members on the state of their organizations.

“We wanted to bring value to our community partners by offering them an intimate means of interfacing with Team Redstone leaders,” Jacobson said. “We also wanted to bring them pertinent information from SMDC.” 
Jacobson said Karbler’s presentation was entertaining and garnered high interest from the audience.

“It is the community partner and individual memberships and sponsorships that help us accomplish our mission,” Jacobson added. “AUSA is here to support our military, specifically Army veterans, active-duty, reserve, guard, Department of the Army civilians and military families, and we are very intent on that maintaining that support.”

Source: DVIDS