ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - Speaking at the Army Alliance?'s annual luncheon March 21 was more than just an opportunity to explore national security matters, said Dr. C. David Brown, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Development Test & Evaluation (DT&E) and director of the Test Resource Management Center (TRMC).
"Actually, it was also an opportunity for me to come up here to fix some plumbing in our house in Havre de Grace," joked Brown, a retired Army officer who worked at APG for more than three decades. "I now know why plumbers get paid more than I do."
In his talk to approximately 200 members of Team APG and Army supporters at the Bayou Restaurant in Havre de Grace, Brown spoke about the responsibilities and challenges of both of his areas of responsibility.
At TRMC, the center and its subordinate organizations focus on the health, development and funding of DoD's Major Range and Test Facility Base, the nation's infrastructure for conducting effective tests and evaluations, of which APG is a component.
On the DT&E side, Brown said he engages major defense acquisition programs and helps them develop strong DT&E elements.
"Congress, a little while back, realized that DoD had kind of lost its focus on DT&E," he said. ?There was a lot of emphasis on operational tests and evaluations, but they noticed when programs were getting to the operational tests, somehow they weren't ready for it and failing. And that's a really bad time to find out something doesn't work. You want to find out something doesn't work early on so you can fix things right then."
As a result, Brown said, Congress passed the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009, which created his office as deputy assistant secretary of defense for DT&E.
In 2002, Congress wanted a collective oversight outfit for the nation's test ranges as an entity to support DoD's DT&E endeavors. That led to the creation of the TRMC, which monitors and funds the test ranges and brings them under centralized management.
Since assuming his position last September, Brown, an engineer, said he has pushed for early involvement in testing systems and programs. "Many times, I've said, `If I could only have been there sooner, it would've been easier or cheaper to fix,'" he said. "I'm determined to help [program managers] know what they can do early on so they can make improvements to systems, find problems and lay out a good plan."
Brown said there are now key early "milestones" in the DoD acquisition process, including a new T&E master plan that is more comprehensive than the previous T&E strategy. "You have to make sure the technology you've chosen for the program now is mature and that you understand the program risks and you have a plan to address those risks. That's all part of having the right information," he said.
Under the DoD 5000 process, DoD is now working more closely with industry partners on testing plans, Brown said. When programs receive funding and schedules and start engineering, manufacturing and developing, "we can't do that without a good test and evaluation master plan as well. So this is our focus," Brown said.
Cyber remains a high priority throughout DoD, but the certification process now requires a six-step process to help program managers understand the threat of cyber attacks, he said. In addition, they need to engineer their systems for cyber survivability, Brown said.
Also in DoD 5000, he said program shops have certified chief T&E professionals in key leadership positions. "That ensures the engineering does what it needs to do to bring the requirements to the warfighter but also the test and evaluation program to make sure the engineering system does what it needs to do," Brown said. "This assures the program has leadership and the expertise and capability to conduct a thorough and good DT&E program."
The TRMC, he said, oversees 26 major test capabilities across the country, including APG where ATEC oversees the Army's portion of the major range and test facilities. "We've got a lot of cool initiatives that reach across all of the test capabilities," Brown said.
He said the Pentagon is currently heavily involved with APG regarding DT&E programs and the TRMC, as well as development of test vehicles and tactical command communications.
As far as looming budget concerns, Brown joked that almost everyone he knows at DoD these days sounds like Eeyore, the gloomy donkey character in the Winnie the Pooh stories. But he cautioned there is some good news for the Army and APG.
Research and development, as well as engineering and manufacturing, and testing and evaluation, appear to be areas in which funding will continue at a level pace, Brown said. "We can't forget the next force and the force after next," he said. "If we need to, we can always ramp up the warfighters; we can't recover from a loss of technological edge. And when we look at our potential adversaries in the future, we?'re talking about a war of technologies.
"Our military has always depended on technological superiority," he said. "So we have to make sure that while we may not have the technology in the hands of the warfighter, it has to be on the shelf and ready when the warfighter needs it."
Brown thanked Team APG for conducting its mission in an exemplary fashion. "It's you folks and your workforce that not only sustain Aberdeen Proving Ground but all of the major range and testing facility bases," he said. "Please go back and tell all of your workforce that inside `the building, ' there are people there that know what's going on out at the ranges and that what will ensure our technological edge for our force and the next force is these great people out on our ranges like at Aberdeen Proving Ground."
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