HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Being responsive to the nation's warfighters requires an innovative approach to adapting missile systems to "fit the fight" and a line of communication that keeps industry and academia involved in the Army's modernization process, according to a leading Department of the Army senior executive service member.
Speaking at the April 19 Missile Systems Symposium hosted at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Ala., by the Redstone-Huntsville Chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army, Barry Pike, program executive for Missiles and Space, said forums like the symposium are important to keeping government partners aware of changing requirements for Army equipment to meet evolving national threats and world situations.
Pike said the fiscal year 2016 is a milestone year for four for the PEO's major programs. While the Integrated Battlefield Command System and the Indirect Fire Protection capability will undergo program review two new projects -- the Lower Tier Missile Defense Sensor (the Patriot sensor replacement) and the Long Range Precision Fire system -- will begin development.
Even in a time of declining budgets, Pike said there remains a lot of interest in new programs and major upgrades in missile systems managed by the PEO for Missiles and Space.
Reviewing the PEOs budget portfolio, Pike said investment was at its lowest in fiscal year 2015, with the PEO budget of $2.8 billion. That budget increased to $3.4 billion in fiscal year 2016 and is set to grow to $4.5 billion in fiscal year 2017. A healthy PEO, Pike said, has about $2 billion a year for procurement and $2 billion a year for research, development test and evaluation.
fiscal year 13, 14 and 15, budgets were less because the "Army was getting smaller and it was recommended to buy less materiel in terms of procurement. But this year and next, procurement accounts are going back up … We need quality and reliability in our systems. We've realized the Army needs to ramp up in terms of our munitions procurement," Pike said.
, Development, Test and Evaluation funds are needed to foster, build and develop new programs that will replace aging systems.
"We need to replace capability that over decades has served us well," Pike said. "We are fighting the obsolescence battle."
Unlike helicopters and unmanned aircraft, the missile portfolio is primarily an "inside the Army" portfolio with little commercial opportunity.
"There is no commercial marketplace for missiles," Pike said. "With lots of things the Army buys there is a commercial marketplace, a commercial technology that is applicable. Missiles are really a unique piece of business. If you don't have a perpetual investment in science and engineering; and research, development, test and evaluation, then you are in a death spiral."
Pike said it took the Army "decades to create the industrial base that can deliver a system with overmatch capability" and it's important to maintain that industrial base along with relationships with such partners as the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Missile Defense Agency so that innovation can be turned into "real materiel we can turn over to our warfighters."
Reviewing a history of missile innovation, Pike referred to three offset cycles -- the first, in the 1950s, focused on tactical nuclear deterrence (Redstone, Pershing, Lance TOW and other missiles); the second, in the 1970s, was aimed at precision-guided munitions; and the third, in the 1980s and still today, has produced the Big 5 weapon systems (AH-64 Apache Helicopter, UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter, M1 Abrams Tank, M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and MIM-104 Patriot Missile System) and continues with robotics, lasers and other technologies.
"The innovation piece has been very engaged in the missiles of the Big 5 systems," Pike said. "It's up to our creativity and ingenuity to be a factor in stabilizing the world again.
"Nothing is forever. Our enemies are figuring out and finding ways to combat our systems. That is perpetual, and that's why we are always moving and fielding new things. We have to figure out how to use existing things in ways or how to integrate existing things in different ways. We have to find new purpose for technology."
Hellfire missiles integrated on unmanned aircraft systems and HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) shooting the AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles) are examples of applying existing technology in new ways. The PEO is working to apply existing sensors, shooters, and command and control systems for new purposes and new threats.
In an era of tight budgets, "we have to fight tough so we go with what we've got and if we go with what we've got we've got to get the most out of it," Pike said. "We've got to take existing material and apply it to different platforms in new ways."
The Integrated Air and Missile Defense Command System (IBCS) offers a good solution to integrating different missiles, sensors and launchers. Taking elements such as Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar (C-RAM) systems and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems, and putting them together to create a system of systems for the future, Pike said.
"We will always be able to overmatch downrange against the threats … But we have to modernize at an affordable pace. We need modular missiles that can use different controls and different warheads. Hellfire is a good example of that. That system has continued to reinvent itself with different platforms, and different warheads and guidance systems."
To respond to the complex world threat, you have to be "adaptable and have modularity. You have to set yourself up for options with a main line stream of modernization," Pike said. "Modularity provides real solutions because you don't know how the threat will present itself. Its how we can make sure we are in a position to be responsive."
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