Army looks to leverage lessons from past leaders with its new acquisition lecture series

By Nancy Jones-Bonbrest, PEO C3TOctober 2, 2014

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (October 1, 2014) -- With a focus on learning from past Army acquisition stumbles and successes, the Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications-Tacti
(Left to right) Maj. Gen. Daniel P. Hughes, program executive officer Command, Control and Communications-Tactical, welcomes Lt. Gen. (R) William Campbell as the inaugural speaker in the Excellence in Acquisition Lecture Series on September 30 at Abe... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (October 1, 2014) -- With a focus on learning from past Army acquisition stumbles and successes, the Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T) kicked off the new Excellence in Acquisition Lecture Series on September 30 at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Lt. Gen. (R) William Campbell, a visionary leader who in the 1990s helped establish a digitized Army, served as the inaugural speaker.

Delivering insights for today's Army, Campbell reviewed examples of acquisition success stories during a period of declining budgets, discussed the recent history of Army acquisition reform and reminded the workforce members in attendance that although the acquisition process is often complex, it has also delivered and deployed the world's best and most technically advanced weapons systems.

The event, free and open to the workforce at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) and offered to offsite locations through video teleconference, served as a reminder that the support they provide to today's Soldiers is built on the foundation of past leadership.

"Remember who you work for in this sequence: The only reason any of us are in this business is to support the warfighter and that's customer number one," Campbell said. "Your second order of priority is your team - your workforce - and doing everything you can to make them successful. Third, don't forget your chain of command. As long as you don't forget the first two, then the chain of command will be behind you."

Campbell's forward-looking vision during the 1990s set the precedent for today's modernized Army, which is now fielding its high-speed, mobile tactical communications network to some of its most expeditionary light and heavy units. He championed the push for a digitized Army, one that could achieve seamless and secure, end-to-end connectivity from installation to the deployed Soldier.

"We did a lot of great things on a limited budget," Campbell said.

During the lecture he offered glimmers of hope in acquisition reform, such as product-tailored acquisition models and rapid acquisition elements, as well as the window of opportunity for "agile" development and rapid prototyping programs. He also discussed specific lessons learned regarding individual programs and case studies on meeting urgent needs.

For example, Campbell discussed the acquisition process of the Guided Bomb Unit 28, or 'bunker buster' bomb, that was built and deployed in 28 days in 1991 during Desert Storm and used to penetrate fortified Iraqi Command Centers buried underground. He also told the successful acquisition history of Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below, the Army's current situational awareness tool, which is integrated on more than 100,000 platforms, resides in each tactical operations center and is fielded to every brigade combat team in the Army.

"General Campbell saw early on how information technology could transform the Army to dominate on future battlefields," said Maj. Gen. Daniel P. Hughes, current program executive officer for C3T. "He worked to secure the extensive bandwidth and architecture needed to deliver a pervasive network. The integrated capabilities we field today, called capability sets, resulted from the perseverance of General Campbell and his workforce several years prior."

Campbell led the organization that today is known as PEO C3T at Fort Monmouth, N.J., when it was called PEO Command and Control Systems from January 1993 through July 1995, and PEO Command, Control and Communication Systems for the next two years. He also served as the Army's Program Executive Officer, Intelligence and Electronic Warfare from November 1987 through April 1992.

Campbell's career culminated in July 2000 with his duty as the Director of Information Systems for Command, Control, Communications and Computers and the Chief Information Officer of the U.S. Army. He also led the Army's campaign to improve computer security and initiated the Army's biometric identification program.

"Today, I'm most encouraged by the spirit and culture of collaboration and cooperation of the federated environment of the laboratories at APG, because the power comes from the entire team," Campbell said. "Acquisition is a team sport. You can't get there on your own."

The lecture series will be held quarterly, focusing on the intersection of acquisition and the Army's command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) technologies.

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