ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. — Advanced manufacturing is a foundational capability toward building ready combat formations across the Army. That was the message at the first ever Advanced Manufacturing wargame at Rock Island Arsenal, Dec. 4-5, 2024.
Leaders and experts from across the Army Sustainment Enterprise gathered among the low hums of 3D printers at Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center's advanced manufacturing center of excellence. They met to discuss various topics related to the Army's implementation of advanced manufacturing in its maintenance capabilities, aiming to mitigate supply chain disruptions and empower Soldiers to efficiently solve maintenance problems.
“The war in Ukraine has taught us so much about how the modern battlefield is going to look,” said Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, Army Materiel Command deputy commanding general and acting commander. “They have taken advanced manufacturing to the next level. I’ve personally seen where they have manufactured parts that have the same steel density needed to fix equipment broken on the battlefield. We need to take those lessons learned back to our Army and distribute it to the point of impact.”
The wargame brought together general officers, members of the senior executive service, chief warrant officers, Soldiers and Army Civilians from units and commands who cover the sustainment enterprise — from AMC and its life cycle management commands to Defense Logistics Agency, sustainment brigades and Army G-4.
“We don’t expect to leave here with all of the solutions,” said Maj. Gen. Michael Lalor, commanding general of Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. “I want to come out of here with actionable outputs toward a strategy to use as a combined Army team.”
Mohan and Lalor emphasized the need for attendees to propose bold, unconventional ideas and collaborate with stakeholders outside of their usual organization to help create a more integrated advanced manufacturing strategy that Soldiers can easily understand and execute.
Attendees were organized into breakout groups to discuss and collaborate on a more refined problem set within advanced manufacturing strategy. Group topics included guidance and processes, resourcing, governance and data repository and how the Army will implement advanced manufacturing capabilities at echelon.
Each breakout group was organized to include representatives from every level, Army headquarters to the tactical edge, each with knowledge and experience on how existing policies can help or hinder innovation and implementation of advanced manufacturing across the force.
“There is an irreversible momentum in this space,” said Mark Colley, executive director of TACOM’s Integrated Logistics Support Center. “We are seeing results of almost a decade of work on advanced manufacturing. Let’s identify what barriers still exist that we can knock down to improve this momentum.”
Leaders also emphasized that outcomes from this wargame would directly impact units that are using their own 3D printers to build their own small parts for repair and UAS that they can test while training in the field. The governance, policy changes and digital repository of parts that can be manufactured will help units across the Army decide if parts can be printed, and whether it should be done locally or at an organic industrial base site.
At the end of the wargame, a slew of actionable outputs were briefed to Mohan and Lt. Gen. Heidi Hoyle, Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4, for their feedback and guidance as the enterprise determines how to move forward with advanced manufacturing.
Items for immediate action included a technical bulletin, published by AMC, that will compile news and information about advanced manufacturing processes from each of its commands, and determining how to give Soldiers the opportunity to share their own lessons learned with advanced manufacturing. AMC will also continue working across the sustainment enterprise to deliver a repository of advanced manufacturing data that is easier to access, more intuitive to use and enables a faster process for new processes and parts to be certified.
“We are on the cusp of something incredibly important for the Army,” Mohan said during closing remarks. “We have to push as much technical capability to the battlefield as possible.”
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