ARLINGTON, VA (April 8, 2015) -- The Army Study Program Management Office (ASPMO) released the Army Study Program (ASP) Guidance for Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16) on April 2, 2015. The guidance provides planning direction to commanders, agency heads, and study sponsors for the FY16 Army Study Program. The release of the FY16 guidance is the beginning of the annual study development and nomination process that will lead to the Army Scoring Conference in August, and eventually to the Study Program Coordination Committee, chaired by the Deputy Chiefs of Staff G-8 and G-3, for final approval in early Fall. Once approved, ASPMO will begin funding the studies for execution in the order that they are ranked at the Army Scoring Conference, yielding studies and analyses that address the highest priority issues facing Army senior leaders and individual commands.
The study guidance is based upon Army research focus areas as determined by the Senior Analyst Advisory Board (SAAB), chaired by the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8 and made up of the Directors of the major Army Analytic Organizations. The Focus Areas are complemented by the Army Campaign Plan, the Army Posture Statement, and the priorities set forth by the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Army.
There are eight Focus Areas for the FY16 Army Study Program Guidance. They are: "Soldier-centric Investments and Soldier Resiliency", specifically the identification of high- and low pay-off areas for investments in Soldiers versus investments in current and emerging technology. This includes building resilience to enable Soldiers to possess the mental, physical, emotional, and behavioral ability to face and cope with adversity, adapt to change, recover, learn, and grow from temporary setbacks.
Force 2025 and Beyond is the Army's comprehensive strategy to change and deliver land-power capabilities as a strategic instrument of the future Joint Force. It examines the challenges the nation faces in the future, and the ways and means needed for Army forces to operate decisively across the full spectrum of operations. The Focus Area "Developing Army Force 2025" includes the 20 Army Warfighting Challenges, evaluation of the Army's expeditionary capability to deploy to, and conclude assigned missions as quickly as possible, and identification of tradeoffs among operational capabilities. Additionally, the SAAB agreed it is necessary to determine how the Army should be organized, equipped, employed, manned, educated, and trained in 2025 and beyond to accomplish campaign objectives and protect U.S. national interests. It would also be necessary to address challenges to Army Force 2025 by examining the alignment between Defense Planning Guidance strategic scenarios and Army Warfighting challenges.
"Stationing Analysis and support to Infrastructure Analytics", another Focus Area, will include the exploration, development, and improvement of tools and data to support senior leader stationing decisions. These studies would address the most analytically challenging decisions for senior leaders (i.e. Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)). Additionally, identifying factors that affect current army capabilities during periods of rapid expansion in terms of readiness, training, and access to manpower will be a Focus Area for the FY16 ASP. The topic, "Reversibility for the Army", will also cover studies that attempt to explore methods to mitigate the effects on rotational deployment models and develop core reversibility measures that generate informed strategic choices.
"Capability Cost Reduction" will encompass studies addressing second order impacts of acquisition investment programs on the costs to the Institutional Army's Readiness, and management of Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA) Test and Evaluation and Science and Technology "shift left" efforts that should be integrated. Reduction of the institutional cost of Under Body Blast Testing is also covered within this Focus Area.
"Cyberspace Operations" has been and will continue to be an important issue for the Army, which at all levels requires the ability to simultaneously dominate in both the land and cyber operational domains. This Focus Area addresses the need for the Army to identify and explore specific cyberspace operations at tactical levels required to retain freedom of maneuver in cyberspace while denying freedom of action to adversaries. This topic specifically addresses impacts of synchronizing the delivery of cyberspace effects with operations conducted in the physical domain.
The final FY16 Focus Areas will encompass studies which analyze the "Army Workforce Mix" and "Analysis of Emerging High-priority Department of Defense Scenarios". With the budgetary constraints facing the Army, studies within the Workforce Mix Focus Area will provide analysis that will assess the overall mix between military, civilian, and contractor labor pools in order to determine the best balance to sustain readiness and better align functional priorities to meet an increasingly volatile operating environment. The latter will include force sizing and capability assessments, and analysis of ground force requirements to deter threats.
The FY16 Army Study Guidance provides a broad range of topics that encompass the wide spectrum of issues facing both the overall Army, and specific commands. The broadness of the guidance is intended to do just that, as the missions of commands vary greatly and analysis and insight is required on a wide variety of topics. The FY16 guidance accommodates these missions while maintaining focus on the issues of highest priority to Army Senior Leadership.
The FY16 HQDA Army Study Program Development memorandum, released on 2 April 2015, provides specific instructions for the development and submission of study proposals for the FY16 HQDA study program. Anyone with AKO access can log in to AKO and access the memorandum at: https://www.us.army.mil/suite/doc/44536712. Study Program Coordination Committee members that wish to submit proposals for inclusion in the FY16 program should work with their study coordinators, or contact the Director of ASPMO, Ms. Meghan Mariman at: meghan.b.mariman.civ@mail.mil.
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