ADELPHI, Md. -- Military leaders from the organization responsible for Army science and technology met with researchers and engineers for briefings, tours and a town hall meeting Aug. 23, 2021.
The commanding general, command sergeant major and deputy to the commanding general of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, known as DEVCOM, visited the Adelphi Laboratory Center, home to the Army Research Laboratory. ARL is an element of DEVCOM.
Brig. Gen. Edmond "Miles" Brown, who took the reins of DEVCOM in a July 9, 2021, ceremony, is meeting with scientists, engineers and employees from across the organization in his first months as commanding general. Brown toured laboratory facilities at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, Aug. 4.
“ARL is as broad and as comprehensive as the Army itself,” Brown told a gathering of researchers during the town hall meeting. “Science will tell you there’s as much complexity in one cell of the human body as there is in the entire human body, and inside ARL it’s the same way.”
Brown stressed that what Army researchers do is unique.
During a hands-on tour, the general and his leadership team learned about current research initiatives, including how Army researchers are working toward an invincible, lightweight battery. The team developed a more stable energy source that is able to conform to any shape and size. They even physically cut the batteries, dropped them in water and conducted ballistic tests. Testing has been successful [Read more].
Command Sgt. Maj. Bryan D. Barker assumed responsibility as the DEVCOM senior enlisted advisor June 21, 2021.
“I think my goal, first off, is being able to tell the story of everything DEVCOM is doing to the rest of the Army so they can know all the great efforts that are being done by this team,” he said. “Especially through COVID. Nothing has really slowed down. What we’ve done is adapted and overcome the challenges.”
Barker said he thinks science and technology advances will aid future Soldiers.
“I think reducing the burden on a Soldier as far as the weight that we carry,” he said. “We continue to augment them, but it adds weight. I’m really a big proponent for reducing that weight on our Soldiers.”
The team will continue to meet with other Army researchers and employees from across DEVCOM in the coming weeks and months.
“We’re a different animal,” Barker said. “We have about 160 Soldiers and about 27,000 employees. It’s a very different dynamic than I’m accustomed to.
According to Barker, the workforce continues to impress him.
“The team and the experiences and really the educational background of a lot of these people, it’s just astounding,” he said.
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As the Army’s national research laboratory, ARL is operationalizing science to achieve transformational overmatch. Through collaboration across the command’s core technical competencies, DEVCOM leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more successful at winning the nation’s wars and come home safely. DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. DEVCOM is a major subordinate command of the Army Futures Command.
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