WASHINGTON (April 7, 2015) -- As the Army heads into an increasingly unpredictable and complex world, Soldiers will be relying more heavily on unmanned systems, so it is important that those systems first be accepted and trusted, Maj. Gen. Robert Dyess Jr. said.
Dyess, director of Force Development Directorate, G-8, delivered the keynote address to open the National Defense Industrial Association-sponsored Ground Robotics Capabilities Conference and Exhibition, here, April 7.
Young Soldiers have already made the culture shift, perhaps because of generational aspects, Dyess said, meaning the reliance on apps and computerized consumer goods that remove a lot of the thinking and knob and dial turning. These are the guys operating unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, in Afghanistan, teamed with Apache pilots.
Senior Army leaders also see the potential that unmanned systems can bring to bear on the battlefield, he said. For example, as the Army becomes more and more expeditionary and U.S.-based, Soldiers will need to be able to deploy quickly and with lighter equipment.
Heavily protected trucks in a convoy increase the logistics footprint tremendously with added fuel and drivers. If some or most of those vehicles could be unmanned, that footprint would shrink dramatically. Senior leaders see how that capability dovetails with the Army Operating Concept, he said.
A large group of Soldiers are still at the bottom of the "U-shaped" acceptance curve, though, Dyess said. These are the senior non-commissioned officers, or NCOs, and field-grade officers; combat veterans, who learned to rely on the man to his left and right. They are still, by and large, skeptics of this revolutionary technology.
Once we get them to buy in, "that's the tipping point," he said.
But the Army is not waiting for that tipping point to be reached, he said. It is already protected its science and technology investments in new technologies, including unmanned systems.
And manned-unmanned teaming is already taking place in the air, and, some catch-up is needed for manned-unmanned ground systems, he said.
ACQUIRING UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Dyess said he is skeptical that acquisition reform would alter the way the Army procures and sustains unmanned systems. Reforms tend to add more layers to regulations and bureaucracy, he said.
The solution, Dyess believes, is simple: communicate better. By that he means face-to-face meetings with the acquisition, requirements, testing, capabilities, integration and industry partners so everyone is on the same page. That alone would streamline things and result in a better system for the warfighter and one that's more defendable to Congress.
A small-business owner asked the general how he could get something funded when the budget cycle operates on five-year cycles and programs of record.
Dyess responded that in these times of fiscal restraint, the ticket would be finding an incremental improvement on an existing system that is cost effective and can be shown to benefit the warfighter. That approach could avoid it becoming a program of record and would streamline matters considerably.
One of the problems that occurred over the last 14 years, he said, is that wars were going on and systems - including Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or UASs - were fielded with overseas contingency operations money without being programs of record. Now, the Army has these systems with no funding streams for sustainment.
The result is the Army divesting systems that are not deemed effective, and the ones that are, are being incrementally improved.
REPORT OUT NEXT MONTH
In breaking news, Dyess said next month, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command will release a survey report on unmanned system mobility, endurance, durability, interoperability and so on. About 165,000 Soldiers who operate such systems participated in the survey.
Without releasing a summary of the survey, Dyess said it is pretty straightforward whether or not a system is useful or not. If Soldiers get a system that works, they won't want to give it back. On the other hand, if Soldiers have one that does not work, it ends up in a conex box.
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