RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- The NATO Army Armaments Group selected the Army Research Office director as its Army Armaments Group chair.
In that role, Dr. Barton H. Halpern, a member of the U.S. Army’s Senior Executive Service, will seek to create synergy among the procurement, science and technology, and industrial communities as well as better harmonize national armaments concepts, policies and capabilities.
“The NATO Army Armament Group has an excellent reputation for its outstanding work, and its proactive and innovative stance,” Halpern said. “I am honored to serve as its chair and determined to maintain and intensify the positive impact of the group on equipping our forces with the best possible interoperable equipment.”
NAAG is one of the three main armaments groups of NATO, and its missions is to promote land and joint armaments cooperation on delivery of interoperable military capabilities to improve NATO forces’ effectiveness over the whole spectrum of current and future operations.
The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Defense Exports and Cooperation supported by Office of Secretary of Defense and the U.S. Mission to NATO nominated Halpern for the position.
Halpern has more than 30 years of experience in federal government program management with the Department of Defense and private industry.
Halpern will accept the assignment as an additional duty and continue to serve as the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory's Army Research Office director, a position he has held for the past year. ARO consists of more than 100 scientists, engineers and support staff who manage the Army’s extramural research program to create new and innovative scientific discoveries that will enable crucial future Army technologies and capabilities.
ARO has a research portfolio that exceeds $450 million, including more than 1,100 single investigator research projects, more than 40 multidisciplinary research centers and three University Affiliated Research Centers. ARO also manages the Small Business Technology Transfer Program and Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minorities Institutions Programs.
Before leading ARO, Halpern served in the Joint Service Small Arms Program Office at the CCDC Armaments Center at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, for a decade. In a dual role as the chief technology officer for Small Arms and the NATO chairman for the Dismounted Soldier, Weapons and Sensors Sub Group, he provided technical and programmatic advice, leading science and technology initiatives across the joint services and international research and development programs.
Halpern earned a doctorate in organization management from Capella University, a master of science in technology management from Stevens Institute of Technology and a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University of Hartford.
CCDC Army Research Laboratory is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. As the Army's corporate research laboratory, ARL discovers, innovates and transitions science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. Through collaboration across the command’s core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win our nation’s wars and come home safely. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.
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