REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (Dec. 1, 2015) -- Hundreds of industry, academia and other government agencies attended the 2nd Annual Futures Brief to Industry held at the Bob Jones Auditorium.
Hosted by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center, one of six U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command centers, the forum focused on the organization's science and technology programs and its core technical capabilities, as well as current and future technical challenges.
"This event was an important strategic effort for AMRDEC in terms of fostering the continuance and building of new industry and academia partnerships," said James Lackey, AMRDEC director. "In firm alignment with DOD's recently released Better Buying Power and its deliberate focus on innovation to secure technology overmatch, AMRDEC recognizes that delivery of Warfighter capability is truly a team effort. AMRDEC's aligned partnership with industry and academia is crucial to enabling our mission success."
The free event provided stakeholders and other parties interested in working with AMRDEC, an opportunity to have an open discussion about the future of the industry and its changing financial environment.
This AMRDEC forum directly supported Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense's Better Buying Power, or BBP, 3.0 Initiative. BBP initiatives are organized into seven focus areas including controlling costs throughout product lifecycle, eliminating unproductive processes and bureaucracy and promoting effective competition.
"AMRDEC provides great value for the Department of Army and the larger DOD in terms of being a BBP change agent; whether you're talking development and transition of technologies, rapid response and prototyping for urgent materiel needs, or in the complete span of engineering acquisition lifecycle support," said Lackey. "AMRDEC is making a BBP difference and delivering value-added results."
Mayor Tommy Battle, Huntsville City Mayor, welcomed attendees to the forum and shared with the audience about the important role AMRDEC plays within the community.
"In Huntsville, we brand ourselves as a 'smart place'. A smart place to live, work and play. AMRDEC is time and time again one of those smart places we go to for technology and emerging industry. This provides jobs for the community," Battle said. "AMRDEC is a stimulus for growth within the Huntsville area. Having expertise sitting here on Redstone Arsenal drives private industry to decide to settle here and be part of our community."
The forum included presentations, exhibits and detailed briefings by AMRDEC leaders and subject matter experts. Wichita State University, Boeing, Booz Allen, University of Southern California, and others, learned about the best practices to improve industry productivity and provide an affordable value-added military capability to the Warfighter.
"This event is designed to 'tee-up' insight for our Industry and Academic partners. I want these folks to therefore consider this event simply as a facilitation of awareness; just the beginning of engagements between our organization and theirs. I know real business gets conducted in offline networking sessions, breakout discussions, and follow-on meetings. That's where the real results come from," added Lackey.
Industry and academia partners interested in learning more about AMRDEC and its core technical capabilities are encouraged to visit the "About AMRDEC" link in the right-hand column.
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The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
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