ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Douglas Bush, the Army’s assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, says his top priority is very simple: “The only thing that actually matters in the Army is equipping soldiers so they can fight and win.”

Speaking at an Army Aviation Hot Topic event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army, Bush said the Army has struggled in the past on designing, building and fielding new products. Times have changed, he said, with the Army on the edge of big changes.

On a future battlefield, where soldiers will be more dispersed and operating in smaller units, Army logistics must be more predictive and precise, a senior leader said. 

“Those units are going to be out there, not alone and afraid, there's going to be lots of sensors and lots of things going on, but they can only carry what they can carry,” Lt. Gen. Charles Hamilton, deputy Army chief of staff for logistics, G-4, said Dec. 8 at a breakfast hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army as part of its Coffee Series.

The Association of the U.S. Army’s Coffee Series will feature Lt. Gen. Charles Hamilton, deputy Army chief of staff for logistics, G-4, on Dec. 8.

The in-person event will take place at AUSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The event opens at 6:30 a.m. with registration, coffee and networking. Hamilton is scheduled to speak at 7:20 a.m.

It is free for military members, government employees and the media. All attendees are encouraged to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Masks are optional.

Army plans to field hybrid-drive tactical vehicles by 2035 and fully electric tactical vehicles by 2050 align with a broader service strategy to slow climate change and transition more fully to renewable energy sources. 

But the Army’s top acquisition official says this move will also make soldiers more effective against the enemy.

As they observe the brutal Russia-Ukraine war from the sidelines, U.S. Army units in Europe have been making moves to update components, become more combat-effective and better integrate with allies on their “home turf.”

The Army is trying to learn from Russian fighting in Ukraine, according to the Army chief of staff.

“This conflict is not over. It is very, very serious,” said Gen. James McConville in an interview with Government Matters. The fighting has now gone on for more than 100 days with no end in sight.

Facing challenges of the vast Indo-Pacific theater, the Army is accelerating its work to develop and provide advanced capabilities to soldiers, a senior leader said.

“We’re accelerating everything as fast as we can. It’s not going to take 15 years,” said Young Bang, principal deputy assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology. “We’re changing the whole mindset. We’re changing how we do acquisition.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a renowned combat veteran who led Operation New Dawn in Iraq in 2011 and later commanded the U.S. Central Command, said there are lessons for the U.S. from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but not necessarily the lessons one might think.

Testifying April 5 before the House Armed Services Committee, nominally about the fiscal 2023 defense budget, Austin said a prime example of success is how the fire-and-forget Javelin missile and infrared-guided Stinger missile “have proven to be very, very effective.” 

The COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain disruptions that followed have sharpened the Army’s focus on making sure soldiers have what they need on the battlefield, a senior leader said.

“The pandemic hit at a point in our Army history where we’ve embarked on the biggest modernization effort since World War II,” said Lt. Gen. Duane Gamble, deputy Army chief of staff for logistics.