PEO Ammunition to become 'Joint PEO Armaments and Ammunition'

By Audra CallowayOctober 25, 2018

usa image
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

The Program Executive Office Ammunition will undergo a name change that more effectively encompasses the organization's broad portfolio.

Effective Nov. 1, the organization will be known as the Joint Program Executive Office Armaments and Ammunition.

The PEO Ammunition, which was stood-up in 2002, leads and manages the research, development, production, procurement and equipping of lethal armament and protective systems to provide Joint Warfighters with overmatch capabilities to defeat current and future threats world-wide.

Since 2002, PEO Ammunition has delivered more than 16.5 billion rounds of ammunition to U.S. and allied forces.

"This is no judgment of any of my predecessors, but I think that we have done a disservice to what the organization already does and has been doing. Meaning we do more than just ammunition," explained Brig. Gen. Alfred Abramson, the Program Executive Officer Ammunition.

"We are responsible for field artillery systems, we are responsible for mortar systems, we are responsible for shoulder fired weapons, we're responsible for explosive ordnance detection devices, just to name a few," he said.

Abramson said that he considers armaments to include the entire weapon system.

"When you hear the word ammunition, you have a thought in mind of what that ammo piece is. But armaments is the weapon system and all of those sub-elements and sub-component that make up the weapons system. Fuzes, proximately fuzing, timers, GPS, explosives--all of those things make up what the armament is about.

"Picatinny is the DOD's Joint Center of Excellence for Lethality, so all of those things coming together and making a more lethal and more capable weapon system of the future really defines that armaments piece," he said.

Abramson added that including the word "armaments" in the title also highlighted PEO Ammunition's close relationship with the science and technology engineers in the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, also located at Picatinny.

"We have a very strong relationship with ARDEC throughout the acquisition life-cycle of product and programs, and the new name better aligns with what we are doing and how strong our relationship is with that organization," he said.

THE JOINT MISSION

In addition, PEO Ammunition is also the Single Manager for Conventional Ammunition, and is responsible for life-cycle acquisition management for all of the DOD's conventional ammunition.

The new "joint" moniker also better describes the breadth of the organization's portfolio, which encompasses requirements from all the military services.

Because of the joint mission, PEO Ammunition employs Marine Corps civilians, a Navy captain and an Air Force colonel on the staff.

Abramson said that keeping the word "ammunition" in the title was important, so that the team did not lose its sense of identity.

"I was very hesitant to remove the word ammunition or ammo because I think that since its inception in the early 2000s, there has been a lot of great work that has come out of this organization. And if we removed the word ammunition, there might have been a sense of loss about its identity."

Even though the organization's name is changing, Abramson does not anticipate any mission changes.

"This is just more accurately capturing what our mission really is."

Related Links: