REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- Getting smarter. Getting more efficient. Getting better in acquisition.
Those are the marching orders that Brig. Gen. (promotable) Doug Gabram focused on during his overview presentation to industry representatives attending the Aviation and Missile Command's Industry Days, June 15-17.
Recognizing that the theme was a repeat for many in the audience, Gabram said the Army and its leadership continue to focus on balancing the rising cost of defense contracts with the decreasing of available resources.
Today's Army budget has 50 percent of resources going to Soldiers, 10 percent to the civilian workforce, and 40 percent to readiness and modernization. Of that 40 percent, 22 percent of funds are used to generate readiness and 18 percent to modernization spread among 700 to 800 different portfolios.
"How do we maintain a ready force to fight tonight against the threats? We can't do it all," Gabram said. "We have to use money more smartly. How do we get smarter? How do we get more efficient? This is the risk we have to manage."
The Army Requirements Oversight Council, consisting of Gen. Mark Milley, the Army's chief of staff; the Army Materiel Command's Gen. Dennis Via; the Forces Command's Gen. Robert Abrams; and the Training and Doctrine Command's Gen. David Perkins along with Army staff, grapples with the rising costs of sustainment and declining budgets at every meeting.
"This is what's talked about and this is what we have to brief the boss about," Gabram said.
Showing industry partners his "rope chart" of AMCOM and organizations that AMCOM works with indicate how trust, teamwork, relationships and attitude intertwine to provide support to the warfighter, Gabram said "What's powerful, what's different here and what I hope you realize by the end of Industry Days is what we call Unified Action."
Unified Action is the integration of the Army Contracting Command-Redstone and the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center within the AMCOM network to provide better support to warfighters. The re-alignment began in February when AMC issued an operational order outlining the shift in operational control of these organizations to AMCOM.
The lines of sustainment and ownership are essential to the future of the Army, and its equipment and Soldiers. The re-alignment allows "combat commanders to get involved and prioritize and synchronize" programs and missions throughout AMCOM and its support entities, Gabram said.
The re-alignment is a natural fit and a throwback to the organizational lines that existed prior to 9/11, he said. ACC-R manages the contracts that support AMCOM's sustainment mission while 78 percent of AMRDEC's programs impact the aviation and missile systems that AMCOM maintains.
Even though the program executive offices for Aviation, and for Missiles and Space have not been re-aligned, the shifts that have taken place have already improved the relationship between AMCOM and the program executive offices, Gabram said.
ACC-R executive director Becky Weirick and AMRDEC's Mike Bieri, director of the AMRDEC engineering directorate, spoke at the AMCOM overview on behalf of their organizations.
Weirick told the industry partners that her organization's strategic objective is "partnering with industry, users and acquisition teams to provide capabilities to our Soldiers effectively and efficiently. We are going back to being 100 percent customer focused."
The focus is also on trying to speed up the acquisition process, although contracting personnel must continue to follow laws and regulations. "Where we can, we are trying to lean our processes," she said.
New acquisition laws concerning commercial items will speed up acquisition, and policies regarding actual costs and should cost reviews have already helped to save $3 billion in contracts, Weirick said.
"We want to go back to simple ways of doing things and we need ideas of where to shorten acquisition times," she said. "Help us help you help the Soldier. Help us deliver capabilities to the Soldier when and where they need it."
Bieri gave industry partners an AMRDEC overview, telling them the technologies developed at AMRDEC not only create efficiencies and bring down costs for the Army and other government customers, but also allows technology sharing across all the Armed Forces.
Gabram said the realignment through Unified Action is making all organizations involved stronger and more effective. But it will take time to complete the realignment and to see how it will make the organizations better in fulfilling the mission.
"You will hear more about standardization, transparency, customers and policy," Gabram said. "Unified Action is not something we're just doing at ACC-R. It is bigger than Redstone. It's about finding ways to touch the warfighter in the field, to be at the point of need, to be value added."
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