ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - A cyber security subject matter expert for the Combat Capabilities Development Command, known as DEVCOM, recently received an Army Acquisition award for his essay about network security for the Army of 2040.
Carlos Natividad, a cyber security analyst for the DEVCOM Analysis Center, received the 2022 Major General Harold J. “Harry” Greene Award for Acquisition Writing in the Future Operations Category.
“[The award] is about a major general whose time was cut too short,” said Natividad. “I saw how it related to some of the things I work with, so I took the reflection I had in my life as an Army civilian. I wanted to write something that was of my own ideas and experiences to apply it for something good.”
Maj. Gen. Greene was the Deputy Commanding General of the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan when he was killed in 2014 in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is the highest-ranking officer killed on foreign soil since the Vietnam War.
Greene was a champion for adopting new technology and delivering next generation combat capabilities to the force. His career included an assignment as the deputy commanding general at DEVCOM, then known as RDECOM, from 2009-2011. In his honor, the namesake award aims to continue shaping the public dialogue about U.S. Army Acquisitions through critical writing.
Natividad took inspiration from his recent work at Project Convergence and penned an essay focusing on potential scenarios of the Army of 2040 and how the Army is moving towards an increased reliance on networked technology on the battlefield.
“We’re talking about this fabric of data, so I wanted to present a scenario where if we don’t do something right now, there are going to be consequences,” he said. “We have to think about how we conduct our future operations. So, I thought of this solution happening in real time. This is why the essay starts with one scenario and then revisits that scenario after the discussion. We can do better, and we can make sure that we are resilient and ready.”
Natividad is one of four winners (one for each category), whose essays will be published in the Spring 2023 edition of Army AL&T Magazine. Natividad was also honored at the annual U.S. Army Acquisition Executive’s Excellence in Leadership Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., held in December 2022.
To listen to Natividad's interview, click here.
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DAC is one of eight science and technology centers of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), an organization dedicated to discovering and developing capabilities that Soldiers need to deter, and when necessary, defeat current and future adversaries. DEVCOM is a major subordinate command of Army Futures Command.
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