ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- Maj. Gen. Peter D. Utley, commander of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, congratulated three Aberdeen Test Center personnel at the International Test and Evaluation Association Francis Scott Key Chapter's annual awards luncheon at the Top of the Bay on Aberdeen Proving Ground April 1.
ITEA's FSK chapter presented Lydia Mattern the Young Test and Evaluation Professional Award; Mark Hassler the T&E Professional Award; and Douglas Blankenbiller the General Powers Award, in recognition of their achievements as test and evaluation professionals in the local area.
"The awards luncheon is an opportunity for us to recognize our colleagues who are doing outstanding work in test and evaluation," said Chris Susman, ITEA FSK Chapter president. She said that, each month, ITEA presents a technical presentation in which members of the T&E field brief the chapter on their work, latest developments or updates from around the T&E industry. "Our luncheons provide opportunities for professional development and networking to further facilitate an open conversation between military, industry and academia as it relates to test and evaluation."
Utley congratulated the three awardees for their achievements, stating that, although the future of T&E can be at times ambiguous given the uncertainty in the budget, T&E personnel, like the individuals honored at the luncheon, are vital to the future of the T&E mission.
Utley shared the value of collaboration within the test and evaluation arena.
"We have already made great strides to increase communications and share information," said Utley. ATEC engages industry, academia, program managers, test experts, and affected Army commands, through regular summits and methodology discussions to unite stakeholders and foster continued dialogue and increase understanding in a variety of areas, like cyber, reliability, availability, and maintainability.
"The exchange of information is always an invaluable undertaking, as it has proven thus far. Workforce shaping is critical for ATEC to meet future test and evaluation requirements," said Utley. "As the Force 2025 effort matures, we are preparing our workforce to meet the needs of tomorrow."
He explained the impact declining resources may have on the modernization budget, but said ATEC must continue to plan for tomorrow.
"It is clearly evident the need for test and evaluation capabilities will remain today and tomorrow…into the future," Utley said.
"Even though we're seeing a down turn in our modernization accounts, this does not relieve us from looking at the future and understanding test and evaluation demands through the prism of the operational environment and published concepts," Utley said.
To posture ATEC to meet the needs of 2025 in this austere fiscal environment, the command must continue to shape a capable workforce, increase collaboration with stakeholders, leverage technologies as enablers, and become even more agile and efficient in ATEC's processes so the command is leaner and smarter to maximize resources, explained Utley during his remarks.
He said ATEC's process improvement efforts and other efficiency efforts requires the coordination of all stakeholders in the acquisition process to achieve 'unity of effort' and approach the acquisition system holistically from a program's inception to retirement -- throughout its life cycle.
"To work smarter in test and evaluation, assessments should be included, where necessary, in all phases of a system's life cycle," said Utley. He said considering test and evaluation earlier in the life cycle enables decisions makers a greater understanding to help determine risk and reward tradeoffs as they consider the best approach for a particular system.
"Looking at ourselves and challenging the status quo is essential for ATEC to meet the future test and evaluation demands," Utley said.
ATEC is testing smarter in how we:
• Drive Process Improvement Efforts to implement and create test designs to pinpoint and capture data in the most efficient way;
• Increase Test Rigor;
• Plan for Cyber Testing earlier in the life cycle;
• Increase collaboration with DoD and industry partners to understand system performance early;
• Share Big Data with the Research and Development community to develop tools and architecture to be able to conduct queries of the vast data being generated during test and evaluation;
• Train and develop and agile, versatile and professional workforce with the right skill sets; and
• Improve understanding and application of integrated test and evaluation.
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