TARDEC Director Dr. Paul Rogers sees the current environment in the ground vehicle community as conducive to great success for the Army in the future, adding that the constraints of today cannot affect an end-state that will lead to success.
Rogers joined a Detroit Arsenal leadership panel consisting of BG David Bassett, Program Executive Officer Ground Combat Systems (GCS); Mike Cadieux, representing Program Executive Office (PEO) Combat Support and Combat Service Support (CS&CSS); and Marion Whicker, representing the Integrated Logistics Support Center (ILSC); during the fifth annual Michigan Defense Expo (MDEX), May 20-21, at the Macomb Community College Expo Center, Warren, MI.
"As we look to the future, there is phenomenal opportunity," explained Rogers. "We have to be aware of the current constraints and we have to understand how they affect our action, but we cannot allow them to define the end-state for which we are striving. We have to work hard to shape the future."
Rogers said that if the ground vehicle community maintains a positive attitude about the future, it will enable success for the Soldier. "I am very, very optimistic about what we can do today to realize a very flexible and agile warfighter function in the future. We cannot be ignorant about the current fiscal situation and the affect it has on us, but it is much more important to understand the future strategic environment and to do the best that we can, understand and characterize the environment, extrapolate facts, and figure out how we can be successful in that future."
Rogers acknowledged that the proper leadership teams are in place across the enterprise to remove any potential barriers between the science and technology and acquisition communities. "There are barriers to transition technology, and I've been on both sides of the fence," explained Rogers, referring to his experience as the Deputy Program Executive Officer for PEO GCS. "This is a great opportunity and I'm incredibly excited about what we can do right now. We have the proper leadership teams in place across the enterprise that can tear those barriers down. We have a very deliberate strategy to invest in the building block of leap-ahead technologies and the end-state is a program of record."
"This is a great opportunity for us and what we need now is to bring industry in. We have to create a good transition path from government to industry. I could not be more excited…everything is in place to be successful. Everything is here," Rogers concluded.
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