ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - Dave Jimenez, U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command deputy to the commanding general, briefed industry on how ATEC plans to support a leaner, more capable force in 2025 during an Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association luncheon April 8 at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
AFCEA's Aberdeen Maryland Chapter holds monthly luncheons for the purpose of engaging APG leadership and industry in the discussion of challenges of a technical, operational and/or logistical nature, said Mike Bowen, AFCEA Aberdeen, Maryland Chapter president.
"During these events, attendees have the opportunity to learn, interact and share with the ultimate goal of collaboration within the APG community," said Bowen. "This exchange of information is critical to ensuring industry and government representatives understand where we can best work together."
During his brief, Jimenez addressed ATEC's mission, focus areas, latest changes to the Department of Defense test and evaluation policies, and strategic direction ATEC as the command prepares to support the Army of 2025, an area in which he sees industry having a part.
"We're (military and industry) all part of the same team, that of our service members," said Jimenez during his opening remarks. "When we evaluate systems we do it independently as required in law. These independent looks ensure Soldier receive capabilities that are effective, suitable and survivable. Industry is a key partner in the test enterprise."
He informed the group that ATEC's test services are available earlier in the acquisition cycle and invited industry to consider using ATEC's test ranges to incorporate testing in the development phases to ultimately save costs later in the life cycle process.
"Discovery learning saves lives," said Jimenez. "Why test a technology when it's almost ready for a decision. By testing earlier, the technology can be tested with the Army's system of systems to fix issues when they cost the least to fix."
The most recently published test and evaluation policies in Department of Defense Instruction 5000.02 reflect his assessment, as it calls for more frequent evaluation updates on future Army systems and earlier understanding of system performance.
"We recognize the need to provide technical expertise on T&E to industry and PMs (program managers) during the materiel development and maturation phases," Jimenez explained. "The former construct created ambiguity between the responsibilities of the operational test assessment folks and the lead for developmental testing."
Among many changes ATEC is making as a result of the updated policy, ATEC will provide early strategy reviews; approve test and evaluation master plans for developmental and operational evaluation frameworks; and deliver a continuous evaluation publication as a reporting mechanism.
"We've evolved our customer products so they provide more supporting data and meta-data, in addition to the T&E reports we currently deliver," Jimenez explained.
Looking forward to 2025, Jimenez sees test and evaluation activities as a risk reduction tool and specifically names cybersecurity testing as a focus as ATEC plans to support the future force.
"Everyone is talking about cyber," he said. "With how rapid the cyber domain changes, it's imperative that we examine how best to test against cyber threats, just as we do other systems, to ensure new capabilities are reliable."
Just as ATEC is posturing for the cyber domain, Jimenez encouraged the audience to think about cyber defense early as they develop technologies, and continuously test against it throughout the life-cycle with each update. "We are informing better on a system's cyber-survivability. Cyber; specifically our tools and techniques will continue to evolve at a rapid pace and cyber lifecycle evaluation will be integral to any system the Army fields for 2025," Jimenez said.
Data gathering and analysis are the primary activities for ATEC's services, and Jimenez wants to provide customers what he calls 'Big Data,' which is currently inaccessible to potentially improve test, evaluation, analysis and recommendations for materiel procurement and business execution.
"We have a lot of information that is routinely archived with each T&E event," Jimenez explained. "If I were able to publish that data, the community could leverage that data to the greatest extent possible to provide content-based analytic and design insights, at the start of a test."
Jimenez and AFCEA leadership stressed the importance of events such as this luncheon to share ideas, best practices and keep the communications-electronics community informed so they may be postured to meet the Army's needs.
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