REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- The U.S. Army is training science and technology advisors to work alongside Soldiers in the field to quickly find solutions to problems. The Orientation Reach Back Training, know as ORBT, program visited the U.S. Army Aviation Missile, Research, Development and Engineering Command, or AMRDEC, to tour the Prototype Integration Facility and the Software Engineering Directorate.
The ORBT program allows S&T advisors and the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, International Technology Centers, to establish important contacts within RDECOM to gain an understating of the complexities and competencies of RDECOM's diverse labs and engineering centers.
By establishing these contacts, S&T advisors gain quick and easy access to the correct point of contact, while the advisor is in the field.
Because RDECOM is a command with a large workforce, S&T advisors need to know which POC to speak with in order to optimize any situation(s) in the field.
The ORBT program is held twice a year and requires all newly assigned RDECOM S&T advisors to attend. During the course of three weeks, attendees of the training travel across the U.S. to various research, development and engineering centers, or RDECs, and Army research labs.
This helps to provide a better understanding of how, as a whole, the RDECs and labs operate in specific technology areas. The program also focuses on obtaining knowledge of missions while in assignment. ORBT members visited Redstone Arsenal October 23-24, touring the Prototype Integration Facility and the Software Engineering Directorate.
The training is given under the Field Assistance in Science and Technology program. The mission of FAST is to equip S&T advisors and RDECOM personnel, who are deployed in assignments away from RDECOM locations, to provide science and technology assistance to organizations and units supported by identifying, documenting, and communicating technology and capability needs to RDECOM for analysis and solution.
"(ORBT) allows the science advisors to reach into the correct lab or engineering center that knows the most about the need that they are researching," Col. Carl Hollister, RDECOM G3 said. Hollister is the current administrator of the program and participated in the most recent iteration.
Another objective of the training program is to gain appreciation of organizations both within RDECOM and the DOD community that can be utilized for support, according to Maj. Rob Heatherly, military science advisor for U.S. Army Japan, regional director of the International Technology Center for Northern Asia -- Tokyo.
"Japan has certain needs, so it's up to us to figure out through planning, exercises and interviews with folks what those needs are, and how we can reach back to the labs and the Research, Development and Engineering centers to fill those needs," Heatherly said.
"This reach back training and interaction is crucial to informing and enabling the science advisors to quickly meet the real world challenges and needs of our joint forces," Danny Featherston, AMRDEC Prototype Integration Facility program manager said.
The ORBT program greatly benefits the Warfighter through speed, problem resolution and understanding.
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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 provide innovative research, development and engineering to produce capabilities for decisive overmatch to the Army against the complexities of the current and future operating environments in support of the Joint Warfighter and the Nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
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