HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Key U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command leaders participated in the Association of the U.S. Army's 17th annual Missile Systems Symposium in the North Hall of Huntsville's Von Braun Center April 19.
The symposium provided an open forum to promote discussions and provide the latest information associated with current and future Army missile programs in a collaborative government and industry environment.
"We have been working hard to enhance our operations in support of the Warfighter, exploring new technologies for both our missile defense and space capabilities," said Lt. Gen. David L. Mann, USASMDC/ARSTRAT commanding general. "The threat is more sophisticated and ambiguous than ever before and continues to grow in complexity and unpredictability. As I've said before, there is not an army, air force, or navy in the world who can go toe to toe with the United States. Our adversaries know this and are seeking inexpensive ways to exploit any perceived vulnerabilities."
The symposium's theme, "Delivering Innovation and Advantage for the Warfighter 2025 and Beyond" recognized the significance of providing America's Warfighters with innovative missile capability to meet needed requirements now and in the future.
"We have begun work on low-cost missile defense alternatives such as supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense on the Low Cost Missile Defeat Program where we serve as the technical monitor," Mann said. "The goal is to develop a low cost interceptor compatible with THAAD and ballistic missile defense system architectures.
"We're also continuing our work on low-cost target program, using obsolete or repurposed missiles as threat targets for air and missile defense testing," he added. "This past July we provided two Lance targets in support of a Navy test resulting in a very successful Standard Missile flight test. In the future, we're planning on providing short range ballistic missile surrogates for Patriot missile testing in 2018, 2019 and 2020. We're also focusing on new and emerging options like directed energy, which serve as a low cost and effective compliment to kinetic options."
Mann said SMDC is also assisting the Air Force on the construction of the Space Fence sensor in Kwajalein Atoll as well as its operations center in Huntsville. The sensor will significantly enhance the Department of Defense's space situational awareness mission.
"It's important to remember the Army is the largest consumer of space capabilities," Mann said. "And as space becomes more congested and contested our operations could be significantly affected, including our missile warning and missile defense capabilities."
Beyond SMDC's space and missile defense efforts, the command is also making strides in developing its workforce by identifying opportunities both internal and external to the command.
"To ensure we provide the most effective space and missile defense support to the Warfighter, we have established a Civilian Workforce Development Office at our headquarters here in Huntsville, as well as in Colorado Springs, Colo.," Mann said. "It is basically a one-stop shop to identify training and new experience opportunities for our team. The bottom line is that our workforce is more informed and better trained than ever before."
The symposium is a one-day, unclassified event that included briefings from key leaders plus special topic panels. SMDC's Col. Matthew T. Tedesco sat on the first panel titled "Innovation Considerations for Requirements Development."
"It is important to get a clear understanding of the threat across agencies and across services to help allocate the proper resources in the approach to innovate," said Tedesco, SMDC's TRADOC Capability Manager for Global Ballistic Missile Defense. "Your relationships with different organizations and people will help break down barriers to help share common visions because there are a lot of conflicts as you try to attain your goals.
"One thing you have to look at is joint considerations," he added. "We obviously look very hard at what the Army is looking at because of how we are funded, but ultimately we have got to look at how jointly we can accomplish the processes. We have got to work to align our efforts or spend money better to synchronize our innovations and get at the problem in order to save time and save resources."
Richard P. DeFatta, director, Future Warfare Center Capability Development and Integration Directorate, represented SMDC on the "Maximizing Innovative Technology and Transition to the Warfighter" panel.
"We can't develop anything without resources," DeFatta said. "We base our science and technology strategy on the Army's S&T strategy. We take our technology requirements and look at Army processes and strategies for technology and the bottom line is, can we provide capability to our Warfighters."
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