REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. — The importance of the 23 depots, arsenals and ammunition plants that manufacture, reset and maintain Army equipment has been evident as the Army continues to respond to missions around the world.
That was the message Army Materiel Command’s top leader Gen. Ed Daly had for the Organic Industrial Base, or OIB, commanders who attended the OIB Commander’s Summit at Redstone Arsenal, June 1-3.
“We are realizing very quickly that the OIB is as important as it’s ever been, and we have to anticipate that it’s going to be important in perpetuity in the future as we progress from competition into crisis and conflict,” said Daly. “We haven’t been late to need. We’ve executed at the speed of response. We operationalized our execution in terms of mission command at echelon, and you can see the results of your efforts. That’s because of our great workforce that’s leaning forward in everything they do.”
Commanders from across the OIB heard from AMC leaders and headquarters staff, as well as from each other, about current initiatives and efforts, on the first day of the summit.
“When you think about AMC’s overall priorities and how those are nested with people, readiness and modernization, the modernization of the OIB is one of the key things that will define AMC in the future,” said Daly. “What we are doing is setting ourselves on a strategic path to make sure we can set and sustain the theater early and in anticipatory nature. That all comes back to what you do, each and every day.”
During the last two days of the summit, commanders participated in a Modernization War Game focused on continued development of the Army’s OIB Modernization Implementation Plan.
The Army’s OIB Modernization Implementation Plan, led by Army Materiel Command, is a holistic investment plan to bring the OIB into the 21st century, infuse industry best practices and refine human capital management structures to maximize the skills and capabilities of the workforce. One example is at Watervliet Arsenal in New York, which provides manufacturing, engineering, procurement and assurance of cannons, howitzers and mortars. The arsenal has been in operations since the War of 1812 and is in need of modernization to its rotary forging to support Army modernization of Long Range Precision Fires.
Daly said the biannual summit is important because it allows OIB leaders, which are geographically dispersed, to get together, share lessons learned and hear directly from AMC leaders about priorities, including core workload, advanced manufacturing, supply chain optimization and Repair Cycle Float.
“Somewhere down the road, we are going to have to rely on the Organic Industrial Base to surge to support combat operations at the larger scale and that is the objective we are focused on,” he said.
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