Top-ranking representatives of the Program Executive Office for Ammunition addressed members of government, industry and academia during the Munitions Executive Summit (MES) Feb. 28-March 1 in Phoenix, Ariz.
This year's theme was "Achieving Efficiencies Across the Munitions Enterprise; Collaboration, Communication, and Cooperation."
"The purpose of the MES is to interface with representatives from the ammunition industrial base so that we can better align government and industry efforts as we face reduced defense spending and overall difficult economic times in the ammunition industry," explained Jim Shields, Deputy PEO Ammunition.
"The Munitions Executive Summit is a vehicle to communicate to industry the latest policies and programmatic issues associated with ammunition," added Matt Zimmerman, PEO Ammunition's Deputy Project Director Joint Services, and government liaison to the MES board.
"The summit also serves as an advanced planning briefing to industry, where the PEO provides industry the planned procurements and where the investments are going, so that the industry is attuned to where our ammunition investments are heading.
"Industry needs to know what problems we anticipate so they can strategize ways to help fix our problems."
Many military acquisition leaders and industry representatives participated in the summit.
During the summit, Brig. Gen. Jonathan A. Maddux, Program Executive Officer for Ammunition and Picatinny Senior Commander, moderated the Ammunition Enterprise Cross-Service Panel.
The Ammunition Enterprise Cross-Service Panel consisted of briefings from members of the different services to discuss possible improvements to their service's industrial base.
Shields also moderated the PM Acquisition Panel consisting of leaders from five of PEO Ammunition's six project offices.
The panel answered industry questions about shifts in acquisition strategies and future ammunition requirements.
"We discussed the overall reduction in spending on ammunition items, and we were able to give industry the Department of Defense perspective on which sectors would be impacted the most, either positively or negatively," Shields said.
"As the Army's executor of the Single Manager for Conventional Ammunition, PEO Ammo is in a unique position to understand the needs of each of the Services and to integrate all their requirements to achieve efficiencies in ordering, production and delivery.
"During the panel, we discussed which technologies should be focused on and how those aligned with TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command) and ASAALT (Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) priorities as well as the ARDEC's S&T(science and technology) efforts," Shields said.
"I find the MES to be efficient and productive because it brings together all the key people I need to talk with to solve my current critical issues," said Patricia Felth, Deputy Project Director for Joint Products and a PM Acquisition Panel participant.
The Project Director Joint Products executes Single Manager for Conventional Ammunition (SMCA) acquisition responsibility for Bombs, Navy Gun Ammunition and Energetics product lines for the Air Force and Navy as well as CAD/PADs for Army Aviation.
During the panel Felth referenced indications that defense munitions procurement funding will decline in upcoming years and the types of contracts PD Joint Products would most likely need in the coming years.
The National Defense Industrial Association sponsors the summit.
As the Single Manager for Conventional Ammunition, PEO Ammunition has provided moderators, speakers and panelists to the Munitions Executive Summit since 2003. PEO Ammunition was established in 2002.
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